LeAnn Rimes

Born in Mississippi but raised in Texas, LeAnn Rimes took singing and dancing lessons from the age of five and was soon appearing in local musical theatre productions. Before she was in her teens she had begun to go on tour singing country songs with her father Wilbur Rimes and would sing the American national anthem at Dallas Cowboys football games. By the time LeAnn was 14 she'd released three albums, before being offered a deal by the major label Curb and having her first national hit in 1996 with Blue; a song written by Bill Mack which he claimed Patsy Cline had intended to record shortly before she was killed. LeAnn's emotional style resulted in many comparisons with the late great country star and, with Blue going on to sell over 8 million copies, Rimes became a sensation. By the late 1990s she'd moved away from her strict country style to encompass poppier music, climaxing with 2001's Can't Fight The Moonlight, from the movie Coyote Ugly and a pop hit all over the world. However, in the mid-2000s she returned to her country roots and in 2010 released an album of country covers Lady and Gentlemen.