Simon Cowell was infamously tough as an American Idol judge, but Carrie Underwood agrees with his assessment that her performance of “Bless the Broken Road” in the reality competition’s fourth season was “robotic.”

Underwood performed the country-pop song, popularized by Rascal Flatts, as she competed against Anthony Fedorov, Scott Savol, Vonzell Solomon, and Bo Bice in Season 4’s Top 5 episode in 2005.

At the time, Cowell said that Underwood was “very good” and that she “sang it beautifully” but added that the performance was “a little robotic.”

And Underwood — who went on to win Season 4 and is now a judge on the show herself — responded to that feedback in a YouTube video on Thursday, May 8, as part of the show’s #IdolToIcon series.
Randy Jackson, Carrie Underwood, Simon Cowell, and Ryan Seacrest

Larry Busacca/Getty Images for EJAF

“I will say, he wasn’t wrong,” Underwood said. “I mean, it was Top 5. It was like, OK, you know, I don’t know if it’s the time to, like, go out on a limb and do anything crazy.”

So the country singer picked a song with which she was comfortable and then tried to work with the staging, she said in the YouTube video. “But then also, I consider myself a vocalist,” she added. “Like, I want to sing things well. And if I ever try to think too much about what I’m doing on stage, I feel like my vocals suffer. So he was not wrong in his assessment. It was kind of a half compliment, half not, but he was correct.”

Underwood ended the video by doing some robot dance moves. “All right, Simon,” she said. “I mean, robotic then. Does this look a little more robotic to you?”

Cowell’s fellow judges were more complimentary following Underwood’s “Bless the Broken Road” rendition.

“Another great, perfect performance from you,” Randy Jackson said. “I would have bought that from you. Even though I know it’s a Rascal Flatts joint, I’d have bought your version, man.”

And Paula Abdul said she was worried the song was a “safe” selection for Underwood, but she was impressed by the result. “It’s a simple song that you sang eloquent, beautifully, perfect,” she told Underwood.

Well, bless the robotic performance that led this singer straight to Idol status.