McBride, Martina (29th July 1966-Present)

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.

Up util 2018 she has released 14 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 77^th 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. She has also received 14 Grammy Award nominations

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 unnoticed and in 2003 she was honoured with the Minnie Pearl Humanitarian Award.

Sources:

McBride, Martina (29th July 1966-Present)

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