Chely Wright

Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Chely Wright was brought up in a musical, and highly religious, family. Relocating to Nashville in order to persue a career in country music, she landed a deal with Mercury/Polygram but her two albums released through them were unsuccessful. In 1997 she moved to MCA Nashville with whom she scored her first top 20 hit with Shut Up And Drive. As she embarked on a tour with Brad Paisley in 2000, she co-wrote the duet Hard To Be A Husband, Hard To Be A Wife which they then performed together at the Grand Ole Opry. It wasn't until 2007, 13 years after she began her professional career as a country artist, that Wright publicly announced that she was gay. In almost any other musical genre this revelation would have attracted only mild interest but in the world of country, music with its deeply conservative and often fervently religious USA fan base Wright's announcement was severely frowned upon. Almost overnight Wright's album sales fell by 50 percent and she became the target of hate mail as fans deserted her in droves. It was to be three years before she put out another album, Lifted Off The Ground, released in 2010 and a further six years before her next release I Am The Rain, the singer's eighth studio album. I Am The Rain debuted at number 13 in the Billboard Country Charts and became her highest charting album reaching number 54 in the Top Album Sales Charts, confirmation that Wright had now picked up a new audience. Wright's continuing popularity, created not only by her music but also by her high profile campaigning as an LGBT activist ensures she is rarely out of the public eye and she has become an established and respected country artist.