The video for Carrie Underwood‘s beautiful new single, “Just a Dream,” really called on Carrie to deliver an emotional performance to convey the power and sadness in the storyline…and it was a challenge. Admitting that she’s never experienced that kind of love and loss, she looked for ways to make herself sad and have a reserve of emotion that she could call upon when she needed. The day of the shoot and the day before, she searched online footage about an issue she cares deeply about: animal welfare. Carrie says, “I looked up some horrible footage on YouTube about animal abuse. I know that sounds awful…but it was one of those things that the stuff I looked up made me so mad, it made me so hurt that it was really easy to kinda carry that with me all day.” (AUDIO INFO BELOW)

• Among her other charitable endeavors, Carrie is a big supporter of the Humane Society of the United States. For information about the Humane Society and how you can help, visit hsus.org.
• “Just a Dream” is the fourth big hit from Carrie’s Carnival Ride album, which also includes the number-one singles “All-American Girl,” “So Small,” and “Last Name.”

  Carrie Underwood looked to a cause dear to her heart to help her find the emotion for her new video, “Just a Dream.” (:43)
“I’ve never loved and lost like that, you know, so it was one of those things I kinda had to make myself sad in other ways, like the night before the video and the day of the video, I just looked up (laughs), I looked up some horrible footage on YouTube about animal abuse. I know that sounds awful, but I further educated myself for my cause, as well. But it was one of those things that the stuff I looked up made me so mad, it made me so hurt that it was really easy to kinda carry that with me all day. Anytime I needed to think of anything sad, I just thought of the pictures and things that I looked up.”