| Biography |
Faith Hill’s eight-year career has marked one of the music
industry’s most successful and steady climbs. She has sold over 25
million records worldwide and has garnered ten #1 singles and
eleven #1 videos. Her last release, 1999’s BREATHE, debuted at #1
on Billboard’s Top Album Chart and has sold in excess of 10
million copies to date.
Nearly three years removed from BREATHE, Faith Hill is ready to
release her fifth studio recording. Entitled CRY, it not only
draws upon her musical roots, but shows Faith creating a fresh
union between country, rock, rhythm and blues and pop. It has been
a project that has seen her invest the raw emotion needed for any
creation or passion. She will say that this is a collection of
great songs that she hopes will move you just to feel what she has
felt throughout the past year in creating them. The joy, the
frustration, the passion, the tears, the ultimate pride for Faith,
is all found on this recording -- emotions that whether happy or
sad, lead us to CRY.
Co-produced by Faith, along with tracks done with Byron Gallimore,
Dann Huff and Marti Frederiksen, CRY is a collection of songs that
have moved the singer’s soul and brought out some of the best
vocal performances that she has ever given. The album’s title
track, released as the project’s first single, has made the
connection that Faith had hoped this album would make. It marks
the highest chart debut of her career and was the most added
single at country radio thus far this year.
“I simply hope that people like the music,” says the singer. “In
the end that is what it is all about. We all worked very hard to
put this record together and I think that everyone involved worked
with one common goal in mind – to make the best record that we
could.”
Fourteen tracks are contained on a roughly one-hour recording that
Faith says she has been preparing for since the release of
Breathe. “I knew that with the initial success of Breathe that the
stakes would be higher for this record,” she says. “We were doing
all of these major appearances and performances and I could just
feel the bar rising.”
And her instinct was correct. Throughout the past 3 years alone,
Faith received countless nominations and statues from the Grammy
Awards, People’s Choice Awards, American Music Awards, The CMA’s
and ACM’s. She provided her vocal talents for the Oscar nominated
track from Pearl Harbor, “There You’ll Be”. She performed at
SuperBowl XXXIV, The Academy Awards (twice), The Grammy Awards,
VH1 Divas 1999 and 2000. Last year, Faith took time away from a
self-imposed break to take part in “America: A Tribute To Heroes,”
the groundbreaking cross-networked effort to raise money to
benefit the rescue workers and victims of the September 11th
attack on the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon. After
completing a 50-city tour in 1999, her first series of headline
performances, Faith co-headlined the “Soul 2 Soul Tour 2000,”
which was one of the top-grossing and most successful U.S. tours
of that year.
Those that work with Faith know that her desire to grow as an
artist, as a singer and as a songsmith (producer) is unwavering.
Many believe that beyond her extraordinary vocal talents, this is
the key to her success. “I consider myself a student of my craft,”
she says. “I follow my instinct quite often, but I listen, I watch
and I absorb.” And one only needs to listen, to hear and see her
growth on CRY. It is undeniable.
Whether the infectious and liberating rhythms of tracks like
“Free”, “One” or “I Think I Will” or the passionate and poignant
vocal performances on songs like “When The Lights Go Down” or
“Stronger” and “You’re Still Here”, CRY, it seems, stands poised
to make yet another indelible mark upon the musical legacy that
began almost ten years ago.
Raised in Star, Mississippi, Faith moved to Nashville at the age
of 19. In 1993, her debut single, “Wild One”, spent four weeks at
#1 and from there she never looked back. Many are calling CRY her
best album yet. They are saying that it contains some of the best
vocal performances that they have ever heard. “I don’t think about
success in terms of chart positions and sales. I make the best
music that I know how.”
Faith Hill has based her career on dedication, passion and
commitment. Combined with her unparalleled vocal talents and style
she has become one of the most sought after vocalists in the
business and has firmly planted herself at the top of the music
scene, where its easy to see (and hear) that she might just stay
for awhile.
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