I haven’t watched American Idol since the Kelly Clarkson days (yeah, the very first season), but even I remember when Miss Carrie Underwood was transformed from Oklahoma girl-next-door to an absolute BOMBSHELL country singer who has done way more for herself than 90% of the “winners” they pump out of that Seacrest-circle-jerk of a show.

Carrie Underwood, who has won too many music awards to count, is making headlines this week for her support of gay marriage, which she recently shared with British newspaper The Independent. Many people around the world applauded her frankness, especially considering most of her fanbase is staunchly right-wing, Christian Republicans. Of course, no good deed goes unpunished, so thousands of people took to the internet to voice their anger regarding her comments, claiming she is “not a real Christian” and “doesn’t follow the Bible.” Carrie spoke the The Associated Press about the incident in perfect ladylike, Christian fashion, saying, “The role-model word is really scary to me, because no matter what happens in your life, something you do, wear, say, sing, whatever – somebody somewhere is probably not going to like it too well,” she said. “I just really try hard to do what I do and try to be nice to people and make great music and if people think they can look up to that, that’s wonderful. If not, that’s OK too.”

On top of being kind, compassionate, and über-talented, Carrie Underwood completes the package by hitting the town looking like this:

Which has earned the spot of this week’s Hump Day Hottie. We often don’t take other characteristics in to account when picking our weekly #HDH (which is why we picked this nobody with amazing tatas), but I think it’s about time we did. For your candor AND mile-long legs, Carrie, we salute you!

img via dailymail.