Faith Hill

Audrey Faith McGraw, who performs as Faith Hill, is an American singer and actress. She ranks among the most successful country music artists ever, with worldwide album sales approaching 50 million. Born Audrey Faith Perry on September 21, 1967, in Ridgeland, Mississippi, she was adopted as an infant and raised in the nearby town of Star by Edna and Ted Perry, along with their two biological sons, in a devout Christian home.

She started singing at Star Baptist Church when she was three. Her vocal talent was evident early, and she gave her first public performance at a 4-H luncheon at age seven. Shortly before her ninth birthday in 1976, she saw Elvis Presley perform at the State Fair Coliseum in Jackson, an experience that left a deep impression. As a teenager, she sang with the Steele Family gospel quartet at various churches.

At 17, she formed a band that played at local rodeos. After graduating from McLaurin Attendance Center in 1986, she briefly attended Hinds Junior College in Raymond, Mississippi. During this time, she sometimes sang for inmates at the Hinds County Jail, often choosing "Amazing Grace."

At 19, Hill left college and moved to Nashville to pursue a country music career. Early on, she auditioned to be a backup singer for Reba McEntire but didn't get the job. A few years later, in 1991, the singer who was hired instead died in a plane crash with six other members of McEntire's band. Hill worked selling T-shirts, then as a secretary at a music publishing firm, and also at a McDonald's franchise—a job she strongly disliked, later saying she did everything from fries to the cash register and hated it.

In 1988, she married music publishing executive Daniel Hill. A co-worker heard her singing, and the head of her publishing company encouraged her to work as a demo singer. She also sang backup for songwriter Gary Burr at Nashville's Bluebird Cafe. During one of those performances, Warner Bros.

Records executive Martha Sharp heard her and began the process of signing her to a recording contract. Hill and Daniel Hill divorced in 1994, shortly after her debut album was released. Her first album, Take Me as I Am (1993), sold well, helped by the success of "Wild One." In 1994, Hill became the first female country singer in 30 years to hold the number one spot on the Billboard country chart for four consecutive weeks with that song. Her version of "Piece of My Heart" also reached number one on the country charts that year.

1993–1997: Country music success

The album sold three million copies. Recording her second album was delayed by surgery to repair a ruptured blood vessel on her vocal cords. It Matters to Me (1995) was another success; the title track became her third number-one country single. Several other top ten singles followed, and the album sold over three million copies.

During this period, she appeared on the PBS program Austin City Limits. In spring 1996, Hill began the Spontaneous Combustion Tour with country singer Tim McGraw. At the time, Hill was engaged to her former producer Scott Hendricks, and McGraw had recently ended an engagement. The two were quickly attracted to each other and began a relationship.

1998–2003: Pop music crossover and career breakthrough

After discovering Hill was pregnant with their first child, they married on October 6, 1996. The couple have three daughters together. Hill's next two albums, Faith (1998) and Breathe (1999), brought her massive mainstream and crossover success. Faith produced her first international hit, "This Kiss." Breathe became one of the best-selling country albums of all time, driven by the huge crossover hits "Breathe" and "The Way You Love Me." The album sold massively worldwide and earned three Grammy Awards.

In 2001, Hill recorded "There You'll Be" for the Pearl Harbor soundtrack, which also became an international success and remains her best-selling single in Europe. Her subsequent albums, Cry (2002) and Fireflies (2005), continued her commercial success. The former yielded another crossover single, "Cry," which won a Grammy, and the latter produced "Mississippi Girl" and "Like We Never Loved at All," which earned additional Grammy Awards. Hill has won five Grammy Awards, 15 Academy of Country Music Awards, six American Music Awards, and many others.

Her Soul2Soul II Tour 2006 with Tim McGraw was the highest-grossing country tour ever at the time. In 2001, Ladies Home Journal named her one of the "30 Most Powerful Women in America." In 2009, Billboard named her the Adult Contemporary Artist of the Decade (2000s) and the 39th top artist overall. From 2007 to 2012, she was the voice of the NBC Sunday Night Football intro song. She has been married to Tim McGraw since 1996, and they have recorded several duets together.