As Carrie Underwood hits the road on her new 2019 Cry Pretty Tour 360, the country superstar is explaining her choice to bring an all-female lineup that includes rising stars Runaway June and Maddie & Tae.

“I think it was definitely on my mind,” Underwood says in a new interview with Pollstar when asked about how she thought about much more than just an artists' chart success when it came to picking her tour openers. “But really, I’m the kind of person who’s competitive, who wants to put on the best show I can! That’s a lot of what I’m thinking about. I want to support talent, and yes, they’re all women, but these artists are very talented at what they do. You look at my audience, you see tons of little girls. Why wouldn’t they want to see other super-talented young women?”

As one of the most successful female artists in the genre, Underwood sees it as her responsibility to support other females in country music.

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“I feel like it’s all of our responsibility, the men as well as the women,” she states. “Throughout history women have been a big part of our format — and it’s up to us to make sure the woman’s voice doesn’t die out.”

Underwood also talked about the setlist for the new show, saying she designed the new show to emphasize her hits.

“I want the hits in there, the songs people have been singing for 13 years,” says Underwood, whose show, according to Pollstar, will feature catwalk/runway 360 setup that's different than she had on her Storyteller Tour, which was in the round. “But every song from Cry Pretty is in there, too. Some may only be a quick snippet while I’m changing, 30 seconds, but the album is part of it.”

As always, the show will be packed with emotion.

“We’re going to start off fun, and be entertaining,” says the seven-time Grammy winner. “We won’t hit ’em over the head until the middle. Then we’re going to end in an uptempo, uplifting way. Last tour, it was ‘Something in the Water.’ This tour, it’s going to be ‘Love Wins.’”

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