CARRIE UNDERWOOD did a whole lot of planning and thinking before finally deciding to ask LUDACRIS to join her on "The Champion".
She got the idea of bringing in a second artist way back when she was writing it. She even left a space open in the song for the right person.
She says, quote, "We went 'round and 'round about who do we approach, who do we ask, and in my mind, the style of the song with somebody that had his own thing, had a kind of legend status.
"I wanted an artist that matched the song, and everything about Ludacris just seemed to scream 'Champion' to me. We sent him everything and he put his part on it, and when we got it back, I thought, 'Holy Cow. This took it to a whole new level.'"