Carrie Underwood brought the nostalgia to the “American Idol” stage.
The country superstar and current Season 23 judge decided to shop her closet for her latest appearance on the singing competition show.
For the April 28 episode, Underwood wore the same dress that she had on 20 years ago when she won “American Idol” in 2005.
“Same dress, different view,” she captioned a video in which she shows off the multi-print orange frock.
“2005 ‘fit check. Still fits,” Underwood, who is on her first season as a judge on the show, says in the Instagram clip.
Fans first saw Underwood wear the halter-top dress during the Season 4 finale in May 2005. She rocked the look when Ryan Seacrest called out her name as the winner. Bo Bice was the runner-up.
Underwood shared some insight on deciding to slip back into the memorable look for the latest “Idol” episode.
“We did try it on before I committed,” Underwood told “Entertainment Tonight,” “It wasn’t like, ‘I’m going to wear it.’ We wanted to make sure it looked nice… and I was like, she’s held up all right.”
She also said that her kids have seen pictures of her in the dress, but they haven’t watched her season.
“But I feel like that’s coming,” the mom of sons Isaiah, 10, and Jacob, 6, said.
Monday’s episode continued with the throwbacks, bringing five finalists from Underwood’s season, including Constantine Maroulis, Vonzell Solomon and Anthony Fedorov.
Underwood told “ET” that she’s seen a couple of people from her season throughout the years, but it had been a really long time.
Additionally, “American Idol” Season 3 winner Fantasia Barrino was also on hand to mentor the Top 12 performers, before two were eliminated.
Before the current 23rd season kicked off, Underwood reflected on being a small town girl with big musical dreams and auditioning for the show.
“I have no idea how that 21-year-old Carrie was able to muster up enough guts to walk into a room and audition in front of Simon (Cowell), Paula (Abdul) and Randy (Jackson) and the world,” the country music singer said in a YouTube video.
Underwood sang “I Can’t Make You Love Me” by Bonnie Raitt and recalled Cowell cutting her off.
“I was like, I did a bad job,” she said, before being surprised by his reaction. “He immediately gave me a compliment and then said, ‘I’m surprised we haven’t found any good country singers,’ which surprised me. And then told me to keep being me. I feel like he deserves a lot of credit.”
Twenty years later, she’s the one giving the feedback as she sits on the judges desk alongside Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan.
