Margaret LeAnn Rimes Cibrian (born August 28, 1982) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and author. Rimes rose to stardom at age 13 following the release of her version of the Bill Mack song “Blue”, becoming the youngest country music star since Tanya Tucker in 1972.
Rimes made her breakthrough into country music in 1996 with her debut album, Blue, which reached No. 1 on the Top Country Albums chart and was certified multi-platinum in sales by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The album’s eponymous lead single, “Blue”, became a Top 10 hit, and Rimes gained national acclaim for her similarity to Patsy Cline’s vocal style. When she released her second studio album in 1997, You Light Up My Life: Inspirational Songs, she moved towards country pop material, which set the trend for a string of albums released into the next decade.
Rimes has won many awards, including three Grammys (all in 1997, new artist, best country song, & best country female vocal performance), three ACMs, a CMA, 12 Billboard Music Awards, and one American Music award. She has a total of 8 Grammy Award nominations, 1 for Song of the Year (1997 – “Blue”), 1 for Best New Artist (1997), 1 for best country song (1997 – Blue) and 5 for best country female vocal performance (1997 – “Blue”, 1998 – “How Do I Live”, 2007 – “Something’s Gotta Give”, 2008 – “Nothin’ Better to Do”, and 2009 – “What I Cannot Change”).
She has released ten studio albums and three compilation albums and two greatest hits albums, one released in the U.S. and the other released internationally, through her record label of 13 years, Curb Records, and placed over 40 singles on American and international charts since 1996. She has sold over 37 million records worldwide, with 20.8 million album sales in the United States according to Nielsen SoundScan.Billboard ranked her 17th artist[vague] of the 1990-2000 decade. Rimes has also written four books: two novels and two children’s books. Her hit song “How Do I Live” was ranked as the most successful song of the 1990s by Billboard magazine.