Country music has always been something of an anomaly in the UK.
It is wildly popular with hardcore fans here but has never quite consistently broken into the mainstream - arguably until a small town American girl called Taylor Swift came along, with her poppy brand of country, flowing blonde locks and acoustic guitar.
Carrie Underwood won American Idol in 2005, two years before Swift's self-titled debut album was released, and although it propelled her to super-stardom in the States, she has had to gradually grow her worldwide fanbase over the 14 years since.
While Swifts's sound has shifted to more mainstream pop, Underwood has stayed true to her country roots.
And as a result, we find the Oklahoma native on stage in Manchester for the first time in her career, days after her triumphant debut on Glastonbury's Pyramid Stage - itself a true testament to the popularity and quality of the 36-year-old.
Underwood, dressed in a funky black and silver sheer 70s-style flared jumpsuit, belts out Southbound from her latest and sixth studio album Cry Pretty, and instantly the anticipation turns to appreciation.
Tracks from her new album fit tightly like a banjo string with the songs that made her.
Underwood isn't exactly known for her rockstar antics but what she may lack in showbiz scandal she makes up for by by singing about it all instead.
Her vast music catalogue takes you through life's mistakes in Last Name, where she sings about an intoxicated wedding in Vegas; which is juxtaposed with domestic violence hard-hitter Church Bells and adultery in Two Black Cadillacs.
We take a trip down memory lane for the obligatory acoustic-heavy section of the night, where Underwood's flawless vocals truly transfix the room, especially on poignant Temporary Home and See You Again.
These are the same vocals that enraptured Simon Cowell et al, and the entire American public, when Underwood had her first American Idol audition in 2004.
Her voice is still as pure and powerful as it was in that poky, soulless conference room in St Louis, Missouri as she auditioned for the fourth series of the reality TV talent show.
She sang Bonnie Raitt's beautiful I Can't Make you Love me that day, but now she'll find young singers wanting to follow the same dream, choosing her song to sing as they bid to be the next Carrie Underwood.
Underwood's Christian faith is important to her and that is reflected in her including Jesus Take the Wheel in every set she plays, as she tells us it 'means a lot to her' due to being one the of the first songs she picked out from hundreds of demos when she initially started out.
The show takes a political and topical turn through The Bullet, as moving images of coffins draped by Stars and Stripes flags of fallen soldiers are emblazoned on the arena-high screen behind her, while Underwood sings about a mother who has lost her son during military combat.
There is something telling about the lyrics ''the bullet keeps on going, the grass grows back around the stone, and friends stop checking in on the phone...the wound's still open," that makes it not just about human loss and sacrifice during conflict, but also a way of Underwood expressing her sadness and feelings towards a world full of hate and discrimination.
Underwood invites young fan Megan, who has ME, on stage to sing Ludacris' rap section in uplifting anthem The Champion, a move she has introduced to her live shows so that her fans can have their time in the spotlight. It's a genuinely thoughtful and touching move.
We close out with recent hits Cry Pretty, which features a sublime 10 second-long note most female vocalists could only dream of hitting, and pop-country crossover, Love Wins.
As she waves to her ecstatic and loyal fans, Underwood promises us she will return.
Please do, Carrie - we may not be Nashville, but Manchester sure loves some country.
