Carrie Underwood Will Help Barbara Mandrell Celebrate 50 Years with the Opry

Celbration this weekend

CMT.com

Barbara Mandrell is commemorating her 50th anniversary as a Grand Ole Opry member this weekend with some of the biggest names in country music. Carrie Underwood, who calls Mandrell one of her professional inspirations, will perform as well as CeCe Winans, Suzy Bogguss and Linda Davis.

Mandrell will attend both Saturday night shows.

The singer, a three-time ACM/CMA Entertainer and four-time ACM/CMA Female Vocalist of the Year, was inducted as a member of the Grand Ole Opry on July 29, 1972.
Mandrell made a name for herself with “Sleeping Single in a Double Bed,” “I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool” and her pop crossover “(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don’t Want To Be Right.” She became a household name in 1980 when her variety show, Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters, debuted on NBC. However, two years later, she was diagnosed with vocal strain and forced to quit the show. In 1984, Mandrell was involved in a head-on car crash with another driver, which seriously injured her. More than a year later, she released her best-selling autobiography, “Get to the Heart: My Story.”