Carrie Underwood’s ‘The Champion’ to open Super Bowl LII

Carrie Underwood, who has opened NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” show for the past five seasons, will open Super Bowl LII with a video filmed last year of her song “The Champion.”

The video for the song, featuring Ludacis, was released Friday.

NBC Sports also will incorporate “The Champion” into its coverage of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics.

“When we met with Carrie last year to discuss the Super Bowl open, we each brought ideas,” said Fred Gaudelli, executive producer of NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” and the network’s Super Bowl LII presentation. “Carrie presented first. After she spoke, we looked at each other and said, ‘That’s the one.’ Later on, our Olympics producers listened to ‘The Champion’ and decided that it would be a perfect complement for our Winter Games coverage. We are excited to highlight ‘The Champion’ in two events on the global stage in February.”