Martina McBride Biography

Martina McBride was born Martina Schiff in 1966 in Sharon, Kansas. Young Martina was introduced to country music by her father when she was still very young, and before she was a teenager, McBride was singing alongside her father and playing keyboards in his band The Schiffters. In the late 1980’s, Martina moved to Nashville and joined Garth Brooks’s crew as a production manager, and Brooks was so taken by her talents that he invited her to serve as his opening act.

Around the same time, Martina McBride signed with RCA Nashville.  Her debut album, The Time Has Come, was released in 1992 to moderate success, but the follow-up, The Way That I Am, fared much better. The album spawned the hits “My Baby Loves Me,” “Life No. 9,” and “Independence Day,” the latter of which earned McBride a Country Music Association Award for Song of the Year and its composer a Grammy for Best Country Song. Since her successful debut, Martina McBride has released a number of hit albums, including: Wild Angels (1995), Evolution (1997), White Christmas (1998), Emotion (1999), Martina (2003), Timeless (2005), Waking Up Laughing (2007), Shine (2009), and Eleven (2011.) The albums have given audiences the char-topping country singles “Wild Angels,” “Safe in the Arms of Love,” “A Broken Wing,” “Happy Girl,” “Wrong Again,” “Whatever You Say,” “I Love You,” “Love’s the Only House,” “When God-Fearin’ Women Get the Blues,” “Blessed,” “Where You Would Be,” “Concrete Angel,” “This One’s for the Girls,” “In My Daughter’s Eyes,” “Anyway,” and “I’m Gonna Love You Through It.”

Martina McBride is among country music’s most awarded artist, with over fifteen major awards. She has earned the award for Female Vocalist of the Year four times by the Country Music Association, and Top Female Vocalist by the Academy of Country Music three times. In addition to fourteen Grammy nominations (with one win), McBride has also been nominated for American Music Awards (for Favorite Country Female Artist and Favorite Country Album), Billboard Music Awards (Single of the Year, for “Blessed,” and Country Female Artist of the Year), and a number of other association awards.

In addition to her contributions to music, Martina McBride is noted for her dedication to a number of charities, especially those dealing with domestic violence issues, such as the National Domestic Violence Hotline, for which she serves as spokeswoman. McBride annually raises funds for Tennessee’s YWCA and the Kids Wish Network, and she recently appeared in performance at the Stand Up 2 Cancer telethon, singing alongside Aaron Neville and Stevie Wonder.

Most recently, Martina McBride released Hits and More and the Essential Martina McBride (both compilation albums.) An upcoming studio album is set for release in 2013.