Underwood goes Down Under

This comes on the heels of Underwood announcing her Blown Away tour in the U.S., which starts Sept. 14 in Manchester, N.H. and ends Dec. 22 in Sunrise, Fla.

Underwood said she was looking forward to live gigs after doing a promotional tour last year. "I talked to a lot of great people and had a lot of fun there," she said in a story in Fraser Coast Chronicle. "It's really nice to be able to go back and play shows."

"'I've worked really hard here in the U.S. and North American for the past seven years, and it seems only natural that I should branch out finally and take country music, and my country music, to a different place," Underwood said.

Underwood's Down Under tour starts at Melbourne's Palais Theatre on June 26 and plays TRECC in Tamworth and the Brisbane Entertainment Centre before finishing at the Sydney Opera House on July 2.

"Last time we came to visit we were in Sydney and Melbourne and Brisbane, so those three obviously were easy choices to say 'yeah we need to go play shows there'," Underwood said.

"Tamworth is a place I haven't ever been before. We know it's the country music capital so it seems natural, and we know Keith Urban played a show there recently and got a really great response."

Tickets go on sale Monday, May 14, at 9am through Ticketek for the Brisbane show, the Sydney Opera House, Visit Tamworth and Ticket Master for the Melbourne show.