She is a singer-songwriter and producer born Martina
Mariea Schiff in Medicine Lodge, Kansas, and was raised at her parents dairy
farm in Sharon, Kansas, with her three siblings.She began her life in music as a keyboardist and singer
in her father's band "The Schiffters" and went on to join another band made
up of friends of the family after a brief period at college.This led to her becoming a
full-time professional musician with various rock bands and after
contacting the sound engineer John McBride about studio rental they started
to date and married in May 1988.In 1990 she and her husband relocated to Nashville and worked on a
Garth Brooks tour, with her selling T-shirts, not knowing that in time she
would become his opening act.Through
the grapevine she found out that RCA Records wanted another female artist
and so she took a chance and sent them a couple of demos with a bio and
pictures and hoped for the best.After three weeks of waiting a call came in for an interview and a
subsequent showcase and soon she had her own recording contract.In 1992 she released her debut album
The Time Has Come and within two weeks she stood on stage as the
opener for Garth Brooks at a Denver, Colorado, concert.Her first single release reached
No. 23 on the country chart but the following two didn't do much at
all.This
was not the same for her second album, The Way That I Am
, which gave her three country chart
hits, including the No.2 "My Baby Loves Me" and the crossover 1994 CMA
Award winning hit "Independence Day".1995's Wild Angels produced her first No. 1 country hit with "Wild
Angels" and the Top 5 hit "Safe in the Arms of Love".She has since gone on to have
several other No. 1 hits such as "A Broken Wing", "I Love You" and "Wrong
Again" and the albums Emotion,Evolution, Martina, Timeless,
Waking Up Laughing and White Christmas.She has also reached the country Top
20 duetting with Jimmy Buffett on the song "Trip Around the Sun".Working with many other artists and
musicians during the course of her career she has featured with Clint
Black, Dan Dugmore, Reba McEntire, Kevin Spacey, Joss Stone, Glenn Worf and
with the voice of Dean Martin.Other albums she has appeared on include her own Martina McBride
Christmas, Martina McBride: Live in Concert as well as Greatest
Hits by Pat Benatar, Lost Sessions by Garth Brooks, License
to Chill by Jimmy Buffett, Down the Old Plank Road: The Nashville
Sessions by The Chieftains, My Favourite Things: A Richard Rogers Celebration
by Keith Lockhart & The Boston Pops Orchestra, Muppet Christmas
Carol by The Muppets, Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 by Bob Seger &
The Silver Bullet Band, the soundtracks of Amazing Grace, Bambi
II, Desperate Housewives,Hope Floats, Runaway Bride,Switchback
and Where the Heart Is and Farm Aid: Keep America Growing.In the world of television she has
appeared on her own Six Degrees of Martina McBride, as a guest coach
on the show American Idol, in episodes of Baywatch,Charmed
and General Hospital and as a voice in an episode of King of the
Hill.Having recorded ten albums and achieved over 30 chart
singles with six No. 1s, she has received many awards in recognition for
her contribution to music including being inducted into the Grand Ole Opry as
the 77th member in 1995 by Loretta Lynn, being named "Female
Vocalist of the Year" four times by the Country Music Association, "Top
Female Vocalist" three times by the Academy of Country Music and listed as
No. 25 in the "40 Greatest Women of Country Music" in 2002 by CMT. Today she is still touring and
recording and resides with her husband and three children in Nashville,
Tennessee.Outside of music
she works with several charitable concerns and is spokeswoman for the
National Domestic Violence Hotline, the National Network to End Domestic
Violence and the Tulsa Domestic Violence and Intervention Services.She has also fulfilled a wish by a child
suffering from muscular dystrophy through the Kids Wish Network.This good work has not gone
un-noticed and in 2003 she was honoured with the Minnie Pearl Humanitarian
Award.
