Carrie Underwood set for first public appearance since face injury

Carrie Underwood teased her next single with an Instagram post Sunday night that features her left eye with glitter in the shape of tears and a caption that says simply, “This Wednesday, April 11, 6am ET.” Then on Monday morning, the Academy of Country Music Awards announced that Underwood will be performing her new single at the show on Sunday, although it did not reveal the song’s title.

The performance will likely be Underwood’s first since she suffered a fall in November that broke her wrist and required 40 to 50 stitches in her face and led her to caution fans that she may look “a bit different” when they see her again. Underwood posted a photo last week that showed only the left side of her face.

“There is also another part of the story that I haven’t been ready to talk about since I have still been living it and there has been much uncertainty as to how things will end up,” she wrote in a January post on her fan club’s site (the post is behind a paywall but a rep provided its text to Variety). “In addition to breaking my wrist, I somehow managed to injure my face as well. I’ll spare you the gruesome details, but when I came out of surgery the night of my fall, the doctor told [Underwood’s husband] Mike that he had put between 40 and 50 stitches in.

“Now, here we are 7 weeks later and, even though I’ve had the best people helping me, I’m still healing and not quite looking the same. I honestly don’t know how things are going to end up but I do know this: I am grateful. I am grateful that it wasn’t much, much worse.”

The singer also said she’ll be entering the studio next week to begin work on new songs. “And when I am ready to get in front of a camera, I want you all to understand why I might look a bit different,” she wrote. “I’m hoping that, by then, the differences are minimal, but, again, I just don’t know how it’s all going to end up.”

While Underwood has posted only photos showing part of her face, on Dec. 12 actress Adrienne Gang posted a photo of herself with Underwood (who was wearing a wrist brace), adding the following day, “I had no clue she was injured … she looked amazing!”