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Martina McBride music biography continued...

"Independence Day" in 1994. She is greatly admired as one of the top female singers in popular music and has been dubbed "the Céline Dion of country music". She has earned the Female Vocalist of the Year award from the Country Music Association four times and a three time Academy Of Country Music winner for Female Vocalist of the Year.

The country star was born Martina Mariea Schiff in Sharon, Kansas on July 29, 1966 and grew up on a dairy farm. She discovered country music by listening to her father's local band the Schiffters. At seven years old, Martina and her younger brother Marty joined their father's band. She sang for the Schiffters throughout her high school years performing at weddings, dances and other small town gigs. After graduation she fronted several other bands and traveled around Kansas until she married John McBride, a sound engineer, in 1988. The couple moved to Nashville in 1990 where John began working for recording artists Charlie Daniels and Ricky Van Shelton. Martina recorded a demo with the help of her husband and got signed to RCA in 1991. Soon after, John was hired as Garth Brooks' production manager allowing Martina the opportunity to be his opening act on tour.

The Time Has Come was released in 1992 and displayed a honky tonk country style considered worthy as a debut album. Her commercial breakthrough was with the single "My Baby Loves Me" on her follow-up pop oriented album The Way That I Am. The popular "Independence Day" off of the same album became her first crossover hit. Her success continued with the release of her third album Wild Angels in 1995. "Safe in the Arms of Love" peaked in the Top Five and "Wild Angels" became her first number one single. Her first Top Ten country album was in 1997 with the release of Evolution producing two number two hits with "Happy Girl" and "Whatever You Say" as well as two number one hits, "A Broken Wing" and "Wrong Again".

The 1999 album, Emotion generated a big country and adult contemporary hit with "I Love You". In 2003, she issued the single "This One's For The Girls", off of her self-titled album, which became the theme song for the 2005 NCAA Women's Basketball championship tournament. Her most recent album, Timeless in 2005, features a collection of classic country covers which debuted at first place on the Billboard Country Album chart.