Martina McBride - ChristianMusic.com

About Martina McBride

Born July 29, 1966 in Medicine Lodge, Kansas , Martina McBride s best-known for her inspirational-styled ballads about women and children.  Growing up on a dairy farm alongside two brothers and a sister, Martina became interested in country music through her father's local band. Martina eventually joined the band, playing keyboard and singing with other members of her family at local gigs around town. After graduating in a class of nine students, Martina married sound engineer John McBride and moved to Nashville in 1990 to pursue a career in music.

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Recognized as one of the top female singers in popular music, McBride is a four-time Country Music Association Female Vocalist of the Year winner, three-time Academy of Country Music Female Vocalist of the Year winner and a Grammy Award winner. Martina was signed to RCA Records, in 1991, and made her debut the following year as a Neo-Tradionalist country singer with the single, "The Time Has Come."  In 1997 she released her fourth album, Evolution, that broke her into the country music industry with a new Pop-styled crossover sound, similar to that of Faith Hill and Shania Twain.  From that point on, she has had a string of major hit singles on the Billboard country chart and occasionally on the adult contemporary chart. Five of these singles went to #1 on the country chart between 1995 and 2001, and one peaked at #1 on adult contemporary chart in 2003.

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After self-admittedly “hitting a wall, creatively” upon finishing her eponymous 2003 release, Martina recorded what she calls “a labor of love,” the platinum-selling Timeless. A tribute to the country music she grew up with, the album gave her the space to not think about “what to do next” and just focus on making music simply for the joy of it.

“Recording Timeless allowed me to pause and be inspired musically by looking back without pressure to move forward creatively,” Martina says. “I had always wanted to do an album that would pay tribute to the music that shaped who I am as a country music fan. Even though I’m known as a contemporary country artist, I think it has always been obvious that I have a great reverence for our country music heritage. After making Timeless, I came into this album renewed, refreshed and reenergized. I was excited to get going and make new music.”

The album included cover versions of country music standards, such as Hank Williams' "You Win Again," Loretta Lynn's "You Ain't Woman Enough," and Kris Kristofferson's "Help Me Make It Through the Night." To make the album fit its older style, McBride and her husband hired older Nashville session players and outdated analog equipment. The album was very successful, selling over 250,000 copies within its first week, the highest sales start for a Martina McBride album. The lead single, a cover of Lynn Anderson's 5-week #1 hit from 1970, "(I Never Promised You A) Rose Garden," was a major hit, peaking at #18 on the Billboard Country Chart.

In 2007, McBride released her eighth studio album, Waking Up Laughing. It was the first album in which McBride co-wrote some of the tracks. She set up her Waking Up Laughing Tour in 2007, which included country artists, Rodney Atkins, Little Big Town, and Jason Michael Carroll. The album's lead single, "Anyway," went to #5 on the Billboard Country Chart, becoming her first Top 10 hit since 2003. Its follow-up, "How I Feel," reached the Top 15.

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Waking Up Laughing is an 11-song journey of love, loss, redemption and, ultimately, happiness. Martina took the title of the record from a line in “How I Feel,” which describes some of the things that make her happy. “If you have ever woken yourself up laughing, you know it’s the most incredible feeling. As a title, I thought it fit the music; it’s positive and it’s a great message to send out to the world.”

In Spring 2008, McBride released Martina McBride: Live In Concert, a CD/DVD set.

More recently she wrapped up production on her tenth studio album. The first single, a song called "Ride," was released to radio in October 2008. On January 12, 2009, Martina revealed her production of a "Ride" video. The album, Shine was released on March 24, via RCA Records, it debuted at #10 on Billboard 200 and #1 at Country Charts. McBride stated in a March 2009 radio interview that a tour in support of the album will begin in November 2009.

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