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Faith Hill
Faith Hill was born on September 21, 1967, in Jackson,
Mississippi. "Wild One," the first single from her 1993
debut album, reached No. 1 on the country music chart. She's
won Grammy Awards for Best Country Album and Best Country
Female Vocal Performance. She married Tim McGraw in 1996 and
they performed together on the Soul2Soul Tour, the highest
grossing country music tour ever.
Early Life
Singer and songwriter. Born Audrey Faith Perry, on September
21, 1967, in Jackson, Mississippi. Raised along with her two
older brothers by adoptive parents Pat and Edna Perry, Hill
grew up in Star, Mississippi, a small town outside Jackson,
where Pat Perry worked in a factory. Her first singing
experience came as a child in her family's Baptist church.
As a young teenager, Hill learned to play guitar, and by age
16 she had started her own country band that played at a
number of local fairs and rodeos. After graduating from high
school in 1986, Hill spent a year in community college
before moving to Nashville, Tennessee, to pursue her love of
music.
In Nashville, Hill worked as a receptionist at a music
publishing company before landing a job packaging fan
merchandise for her idol, country diva Reba McEntire. She
married the songwriter and music publishing executive Daniel
Hill in 1988. Hill's professional breakthrough came when she
was spotted by Martha Sharp, a talent scout from the
Warner/Reprise recording company, while singing back-up for
Gary Burr in the Bluebird Café, a popular Nashville bar. Her
debut album, Take Me As I Am, was released in 1993 to
immediate success. The album's first single, "Wild One,"
reached No. 1 on the Billboard country music chart and
stayed there for four weeks, followed by the second single,
a version of Janis Joplin's classic "Piece of My Heart."Take
Me As I Am went on to reach triple platinum status.
Hill's rise to country stardom coincided with a good deal of
upheaval in her personal life. In 1990, she had begun a
search for her birth mother, whom she eventually met in
1993. Hill has declined to publicly name her birth mother in
order to protect her privacy, but has remained in contact
with her. On a sadder note, her marriage to Daniel Hill
ended in divorce in 1994.
Country Star
Hill spent much of 1994 touring as an opening act for such
respected country artists as McEntire, Alan Jackson, and
Brooks & Dunn. She won numerous honors that year, including
Best Female Country Artist from Billboard and Performance
magazines and Favorite New Female Artist from the Academy of
Country Music. Her second album, It Matters to Me (1995),
surged to the top of the charts and cemented Hill's
popularity among country fans. The title single remained the
top-selling country single for the first six months of 1996.
In the spring of 1996, Hill began a joint tour, dubbed the
Spontaneous Combustion tour, with country superstar Tim
McGraw. At the time, McGraw had recently broken an
engagement to Kristine Donahue, and Hill was engaged to
Scott Hendricks, a record producer who had helmed her first
two albums. Nonetheless, sparks flew, and the two began a
romantic relationship. They married on October 6, 1996,
immediately becoming country music's most visible couple.
Hill and McGraw have three daughters together, Gracie
Katherine (b. 1997), Maggie Elizabeth (b. 1998), and Audrey
Caroline (b. 2001).
Hill's next album, Faith (1998), hit platinum sales in only
six weeks and spawned two No. 1 country hits, "This Kiss"
and "Just to Hear You Say That You Love Me." At year's end,
Hill racked up more honors, including a Best Country Album
award from the Nashville Music Awards and Best Female
Vocalist from the Academy of Country Music. The success of
Faith (and especially of "This Kiss") on the pop charts
marked the beginning of Hill's crossover from country to pop
stardom, solidified by her performance on VH1's Divas Live
television special, alongside Tina Turner, Elton John, and
Whitney Houston, and the accompanying album. (Hill later
made headlines for her last-minute fill-in performance for
Houston at the Academy Awards ceremony in March 2000.)
Crossover Artist
In November of 1999, Hill released the more pop-oriented
Breathe, which would become her first bona fide crossover
album. With a steamy video for the album's title single,
Hill's wholesome country image became decidedly sexier, no
doubt contributing to the album's triple platinum sales. In
addition to another Best Female Vocalist crown from the
Country Music Association, Hill garnered an impressive
number of nominations from the pop-centered American Music
Awards. She went on to earn numerous other honors, including
a Grammy nomination for Song of the Year (for writing
"Breathe") and Grammy Awards for Best Country Album and Best
Country Female Vocal Performance.
In May 2000, Hill and McGraw launched their second tour
together, the Soul2Soul Tour 2000. The two have collaborated
in the recording studio as well, including the
Grammy-winning duet "Let's Make Love," featured on Breathe.
In 2004, the singer appeared in a remake of the 1975 comedic
thriller The Stepford Wives with Nicole Kidman and Glenn
Close.
In May 2000, Hill and McGraw launched the Soul2Soul Tour,
which now stands as the highest grossing country music tour
ever. In addition to her thriving career and family, Hill
devotes a good deal of time to her charity organization, the
Faith Hill Family Literacy Project, launched in 1996 with
the cooperation of Warner Bros. and Time Warner.
Recent Work
In 2005, Hill returned to her country roots with the
much-touted album Fireflies, which included several
chart-topping singles: "Mississippi Girl," "The Lucky One,"
and a duet with McGraw, "Like We Never Loved At All," which
won a Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with
Vocals. The album was certified double platinum in January
2006. The next year, Hill went on the road with her husband
for the third time with the Soul2Soul Tour 2007.
The following year, Hill released the holiday-themed Joy to
the World (2008). The album was a hit on both the country
and pop charts. This popular singer, wife, and mother took
on a new role in 2009. Hill announced that she will be
working with Coty Inc. to develop a new fragrance line.
Courtesy of biography.com