Carrie Underwood returned to the music world with a huge bang on January 12 after dropping the track “The Champion” featuring Ludacris, and now the twosome is already celebrating the song soaring straight to the top spot on the U.S. iTunes chart.
The hit, which was commissioned by NBC and will be used as part of the network’s Super Bowl 52 and Winter Olympics coverage throughout February, headed straight to the top of the charts upon its release at midnight, and it seems like both Carrie and Ludacris are understandably pretty excited about the song’s instant success.
Ludacris shared a screenshot of “The Champion” sitting pretty at the top of the iTunes chart on Instagram, showing the track sitting ahead of Cardi B and Bruno Mars’ “Finesse” and Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect.”
“Already #1,” the rapper captioned the snap, alongside two fire emojis. The hip-hop star and actor then tagged both Carrie and producer Jim Jonsin in his upload, who also celebrated the track hitting the top spot on social media.
While Underwood liked Ludacris’s post on both Twitter and Instagram to show her excitement for the positive response from music fans, the producer shared a message of his own while posting a screenshot of the collaboration riding high and number one on iTunes just a few hours after its initial release.
“Not a bad way to start 2018 Number 1 on iTunes on first day of release,” Jonsin wrote on his account, “#TheChampion @carrieunderwood @ludacris @theoakhollow #LetsGo.”
As for Carrie, she then celebrated having the number one song on the digital platform by promoting the song and urging fans to stream the instant hit.
Underwood encouraged fans to check out the official lyric video for the song across her various social media pages, as a link to the clip was shared across Carrie’s Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts after it took over the top spot on iTunes.
She also thanked Ludacris for teaming up with her on the anthem, as Carrie told the rapper on Twitter on January 12, “Thank YOU for taking this song to another level! You’re amazing!!! #TheChampion.”
Underwood first teased the new track on social media earlier this week, which marked her first return to the online world since she confirmed on New Year’s Eve that a fall on some steps outside her home in November was so brutal that she needed 40 to 50 stitches to her face.
Carrie then explained the inspiration behind the track, which she co-wrote with fellow songwriters Chris DeStefano and Brett James, while Ludacris wrote his own rap verse.
“When we were writing ‘The Champion,’ our main focus was to celebrate athletes at the top of their game, but we also wanted the song to resonate with people in their everyday lives,” Underwood said of the inspirational anthem which she co-wrote last year, per E! News .
“We hope the lyrics will inspire people to push themselves beyond their limits to conquer anything they are trying to accomplish or overcome,” Carrie then continued. “There’s a champion in every single one of us!”
“The Champion” marks Underwood’s first release as a lead artist since she dropped the single “Dirty Laundry” back in 2016.