Tim McGraw

An icon of contemporary country music, Tim McGraw bridged the gap between country and pop to build a lucrative career during the mid-1990s and beyond. He was born as "Samuel Timothy McGraw" on May 1, 1967 in Start, Louisiana. After dropping out of college in 1989 to pursue a music career, he released his self-titled debut album in 1993. The album made little impact, but that didn't stop its 1994 follow-up, Not a Moment Too Soon, from becoming a Number 1 country album, as well as the first in a long line of chart-topping hits. McGraw released thirteen albums between 1995 and 2017, with 11 going to Number 1 and the remaining top charting within the Top 5. Over the same stretch of time, he notched 27 different Number 1 singles on the country charts. Songs like 1994’s “Don’t Take the Girl”, 1997’s “It’s Your Love”, 1999’s “Please Remember Me”, 2002’s “Unbroken”, and 2007’s “Last Dollar (I’ll Fly Away)” all became Top 40 hits on the pop charts, too, making McGraw one of the first male country artists to enjoy significant crossover appeal. He married fellow country superstar Faith Hill in 1996 and often collaborated with her, both in the recording studio and onstage. The couple released The Rest of Our Life in 2017, and McGraw returned to his solo career with the chart-topping Here on Earth in 2020 and the similarly successful Standing Room Only in 2023. Standing Room Only's title track became an international hit, cracking the Top 20 on the country charts in both Canada and America that summer.