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Through
the '90s, Faith Hill has matured from country music's leading young
debutante into one of the groundbreaking artists of the decade.
Bearing the sunny smile and uncomplicated optimism of a hometown beauty
queen, which she once was, Hill burst onto the country music scene in
1993 with "Wild One." Thanks to the song's success, Hill's debut album,
Take Me As I Am, turned her into the fastest-selling new female artist
ever to be introduced in country music up until that point.
A native of tiny
Star, Miss., Hill moved to Nashville at age 19 and went to work for her
idol, Reba McEntire. After joining Warner Bros. Records, she quickly
became a leading light of the Nashville youth movement of the '90s,
scoring eight top 10 hits from her first two albums.
Faith Hill
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After the release
of 1995's 2 million-selling It Matters To Me, Hill's life and career
experienced several major changes. She broke up with her producer/
fiancé, Scott Hendricks; she married fellow country star Tim McGraw; and
she gave birth her first child (another would follow in 1998, shortly
after the release of her third album, Faith).
During Hill's absence, country music was revolutionized by the success
of Shania Twain, LeAnn Rimes, Deana Carter and the Dixie Chicks. With
Faith, Hill met the challenge of the newcomers by fashioning a
contemporary country album that brought more of a pop influence to her
work. The hit "This Kiss" raked in several awards and proved to be her
breakthrough single to the pop market. The album, which has sold more
than 3 million copies, also spawned the hits "Let Me Let Go," "Love
Ain't Like That," and a duet with husband McGraw on a Diane Warren song,
"Just To Hear You Say That You Love Me."
In 1999, Hill
became a model and spokesperson for Cover Girl makeup and appeared in
the high-profile VH1 Divas '99 concert; in 2001, she sang "There You'll
Be," the Oscar-nominated theme to the blockbuster World War II epic
Pearl Harbor. Such ventures kept her in public eye between albums,
ensuring that demand and anticipation would still be extremely high by
the time she finally released 2002's Cry. |