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 Audrey
Faith Perry, later known as Faith Hill, was born on September
21, 1967. Faith 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 (not to be confused with 1970s singer Dan Hill)
from 1988 to 1994. Working as a secretary in a music publishing
company, Hill's singing was noticed by executives as she sang to songs
on the radio one day. Soon after she was signed to Warner Brothers
Records.Hill's debut album was Take Me As I Am in 1993. Sales were strong, lifted 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 debuted in 1995 and was another success, with the title track becoming her fourth #1 country single. Around that time, Hill began dating 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. Faith & Tim have three daughters together: Gracie Katherine, Maggie Elizabeth and Audrey Caroline. Hill's 1998 album, Faith, moved her closer towards a mainstream, pop-oriented sound, which lost her many of her long-time country 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 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. Cry, her 2002 album, has sold over
2 million copies, she even filmed an NBC-TV Thanksgiving special to
promote it. The title track won a 2003 Grammy for best female
country vocal performance. In the Summer of 2004, Hill landed a
supporting role in The Stepford Wives film (aside Nicole
Kidman and Bette Midler) and released the album Fireflies in
2005. She references this visit 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.
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April 2006
Faith Hill
