Faith Hill

Audrey Faith Perry, later known as Faith Hill (born September 21, 1967 in Jackson, Mississippi), is an American country singer, known for her commercial success as well as her much-publicized marriage to country singer Tim McGraw.

Early life

Hill was raised in Star, Mississippi and began singing at a very early age. After graduating high school, Hill went to college briefly before dropping out and moving to Nashville in an attempt at starting a singing career.

Hill is adopted and met her biological mother in the early 1990s. She was married to a music executive named Dan Hill from 1988 to 1994. Working as a secretary in a music publishing company, Hill's singing was noticed as she sang to herself one day. She soon signed to Warner Brothers Records.

Country success

Hill's debut album was Take Me As I Am (1993); sales were strong, buoyed by the chart success of "Wild One". A version of Janis Joplin's "Piece of My Heart", also went to the top of the country charts. She was delayed in the recording of her second album by surgery on her vocal cords. It Matters to Me finally appeared in 1995 and was another success, with the title track becoming her fourth #1 country single.

Hill began seeing country singer Tim McGraw. When he proposed marriage to her in one of his tour trailers, he had to go perform right then, so she took a permanent marker and wrote her answer on the mirror. Hill began touring with McGraw and married him on October 6, 1996. The couple has three children together: Gracie Katherine, Maggie Elizabeth and Audrey Caroline.

Pop crossover

Faith Hill's Album BreatheHill's 1998 album, Faith, moved her closer towards a mainstream, pop-oriented sound, which lost her many of her long-time fans. "This Kiss" became a #1 country hit, and went to #7 on the pop charts.

Hill's fame grew rapidly as she signed an endorsement deal with CoverGirl makeup and released Breathe, an even more successful pop hit that became one of the biggest albums of 2000. The title track "Breathe" was the #1 pop airplay song that year and has become Hill's signature song; especially notable is the power and control she shows in her lower register during the song. "The Way You Love Me" hit the top ten as well (#7), and becoming one of the longest running singles in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 (57 weeks). The album won Hill three Grammy Awards including Best Country Album.

By the holidays she had contributed "Where Are You Christmas?" to the movie How the Grinch Stole Christmas and the following summer she recorded the Diane Warren penned "There You'll Be" for the Pearl Harbor soundtrack.

In 2002, Hill released Cry. Though the album debuted at #1 on Billboard magazine's pop and country album charts, its singles (including the title track, written and originally performed by Angie Aparo) received much less radio airplay than her previous smashes. In fact, country radio pretty much ignored the songs, considering them "too pop". The album did win one Grammy Award.

In the summer of 2004, Hill co-starred with Nicole Kidman and Matthew Broderick in director Frank Oz's remake of the 1975 thriller The Stepford Wives.

She references this sojourn in Hollywood as well as the chilly reception of Cry in the 2005 country release "Mississippi Girl", the first single from her back-to-roots album Fireflies. It worked, as the song restored her to the top of the country charts. She performed this song along with "Breathe" and "Piece of My Heart" at the Live 8 concert in Rome on July 2, 2005, where McGraw also performed.

Discography

Albums

Fireflies (2005) #1 US (Platinum)
Cry (2002) #1 US (2X Platinum), #29 UK
Breathe (1999) #1 US (8X Platinum), #19 UK
Faith (1998) #7 US (6X Platinum)
It Matters to Me (1995) #29 US (4X Platinum)
Take Me As I Am (1993) #59 US (3X Platinum)