Faith Hill, born Audry Faith Perry in Jackson, Mississippi on September 21, 1967, was adopted by Ted and Edna Perry and raised in Star, Mississippi, where she sang in church, at family gatherings, 4-H receptions, talent shows, and anywhere she could while dreaming of life as a performer. From childhood she showed a zest for music and performing, and in early 1987 she went with her father to Nashville to pursue that dream. After performing at The Bluebird Cafe, she was signed by Warner Bros. Records to her first record deal. Her first single, "Wild One," reached #1 in January 1994 and stayed there for four weeks, making her the first female country singer in thirty years to spend multiple weeks at #1 with a debut single. She had three #1 singles from her first album, Take Me As I Am, and followed them with the #1 single "It Matters To Me" from her second album of the same name. In 1996 she opened for Tim McGraw on the Spontaneous Combustion Tour, and by the end of that year they were married. Her 1998 hit "This Kiss" and 1999 hit "Breathe" established her not only on the country charts but also on the pop charts. With the albums Faith, Breathe, and Cry, she became the first female artist to have three studio albums debut consecutively at #1 on both Billboard's Top 100 and Top Country charts, and she co-produced each of those albums as well as Fireflies, The Hits, and Joy To The World. She sold over 30 million albums worldwide, had 14 #1 singles, won multiple major music awards, and became a dominant and glamorous face of country music as well as a major star in the broader pop market. With Tim McGraw she created the Soul2Soul tour franchise in 2000; that year's tour was the top-grossing country music tour and the fifth-highest-grossing tour in all genres, and the 2006 and 2007 Soul2Soul tour was the highest-grossing multi-year tour in country music history. She appeared and performed on every major award show, performed for presidents and heads of state, served for six years as the signature voice of NBC's Sunday Night Football opening song, was inducted into the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame in 2002, and became an active philanthropist and advocate for the arts and for the culture and people of Mississippi on the national stage.
