On January 8, 2001, Faith Hill won Favorite Country Female Artist, Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist and Favorite Country Album at the 28th Annual American Music Awards. Already a country superstar, winning Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist solidified Hill as an official country-pop crossover sensation. Aside from racking up the most nominations at the usually pop-centric awards show, “Breathe” became one of the best-selling country albums of all time.
Born Audrey Faith Perry on September 21, 1967, in Jackson, MS, she grew up in Star, MS with her two older brothers and adoptive parents. Throughout her childhood, she showcased her singing chops in the local Baptist church. In 1986, she headed to Nashville to become a country star. As luck would have it, one of her first jobs was packing fan merchandise for her music idol, Reba McEntire. After getting discovered singing as a backup singer at Nashville’s Bluebird Cafe, Hill released her first album, “Take Me as I Am,” in 1993. It was an immediate smash success. For much of 1994, Hill toured around the country as the opening act for country music legends, including Reba Mcentire, Alan Jackson, Johnny Cash, and Brooks & Dunn. In the spring of 1996, she joined Tim McGraw’s Spontaneous Combustion Tour as the show opener. Sparks flew between the two country stars and they married less than a year later on October 6, 1996.
In 1998, Hill started to get the attention of the pop music world with her platinum-selling second album, “Faith.” Her singles, “This Kiss” and “Just To Hear You Say You Love Me,” both skyrocketed to the No. 1 spot on the country music chart. However, when she performed in VH1’s “Divas Live,” along with Elton John, Tina Turner and Whitney Houston, non-country music fans started taking note of her singing prowess.
Emboldened by her growing global popularity, she shared a much sexier side with the release of her 1999 album, “Breathe.” The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Aside from her triple wins at the American Music Awards, Faith Hill also cleaned up at the Grammys, winning Best Country Album and Best Country Female Vocal Performance. In May of 2000, her Soul2Soul Tour 2000 with Tim McGraw became the highest grossing country music tour in history.
After releasing two other popular albums, “Cry” in 2002 and “Fireflies” in 2005, Hill took some time off from her music career to raise her and McGraw’s three daughters. Yet, between 2007 to 2012, she was heard on TV sets across the nation every week as the voice of the NBC Sunday Night Football introduction song.
To celebrate their twentieth wedding anniversary, Hill and McGraw released their first ever joint album, “The Rest of Our Life,” in 2017. You can catch them at a concert near you on their Soul2Soul The World Tour 2018 that wraps up in July 2018 in Sacramento, CA. To this day, they are #RelationshipGoals and on tour, they are sure to sing their latest hit songs, “Speak to a Girl” and “The Rest of Our Life.”