Carrie Underwood’s cover of The Pretenders’ “I’ll Stand by You” has become the first iTunes exclusive track to debut in the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song, which was recorded for the “American Idol Gives Back” charity show, was downloaded 124,496 times by this past weekend.
Proceeds from “I’ll Stand by You” go to benefit the Charity Projects Entertainment Fund, which helps impoverished children in Africa and America.
“This is a big moment,” said American Idol creator Simon Fuller.
“The potency of Carrie’s performance on ‘Idol Gives Back’ last week was so strong that it’s set a new milestone for iTunes and is attracting people to music downloads for the first time. More than that, she is pulling in music fans from all over the world.