ARTIST

LeAnn Rimes

LeAnn Rimes came along in the spring of '96, at the very time that country music was simultaneously trying to rediscover some roots and was letting a youth movement get way out of hand. So when a 13-year-old came up with the best-ever Patsy Cline knock-off in the form of "Blue," the country audience went bananas for her.

Rimes, who was born August 28, 1982, in Jackson, Mississippi, started singing at age 2, entered her first talent competition at 5, and made her stage debut at 7. After losing the lead role for a Broadway production of Annie II, she and her family decided to focus Rimes's musical efforts on country music (they had, by this time, moved to Dallas). Rimes recorded an independent album at age 11, and by 13, she had a deal with Curb Records. "Blue" only reached number 10 on Billboard's country singles chart, but it was a best-selling country single for months, and the like-titled album also topped the country chart. In fact, when Curb repackaged tracks from Rimes's independent album with a couple of Blue outtakes and a cover of "Unchained Melody" (under the title Unchained Melody: The Early Years), Rimes for a while had the two top-selling country albums in the States. "Blue," which had been written by DJ Bill Mack during the early '60s with Cline in mind, wound up winning a Grammy for Country Song of the Year. Rimes also took home a Grammy for Best New Artist, an award rarely bestowed upon country artists.

Follow-up hits included "One Way Ticket" (her first number one single), "How Do I Live" (which was the longest-running single on the Billboard Hot 100, beating out Trisha Yearwood's version of the same song), and "Can't Fight The Moonlight" from the Coyote Ugly soundtrack (Rimes's vocals were dubbed in for actress Piper Perabo's musical numbers in the film). Her remarkable voice continued to draw comparisons to fellow singing prodigies Brenda Lee and Tanya Tucker, but with her 2002 album Twisted Angel, Rimes, now a showbiz veteran at age 19, made a deliberate effort to branch out beyond country. The album featured straight-up pop/dance numbers co-penned/produced by the likes of Andreas Carlsson of Max Martin's Swedish hit factory (Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys) and Desmond Child, and the album's first video, for "Life Goes On," featured a sexed-up, slimmed-down, all-grown-up LeAnn. So she may not follow in the footsteps of Lee and Tucker, but regardless, Rimes is still likely to enjoy a long, distinguished career.

Written by Brian Mansfield