Born Margaret LeAnn Rimes on August 28, 1982, in Jackson, MS; daughter of Wilbur (a salesman) and Belinda (a homemaker) Rimes; married Dean Sheremet, February 23, 2002. Addresses: Record company--Curb, 330 Warner Blvd., Burbank, CA 91510, website: http://www.curb.com. Fan club--Prodigy Entertainment, P.O. Box 150667, Nashville, TN 37215. Website--LeAnn Rimes Official Website: http://www.rimestimes.com.

Young country star LeAnn Rimes has demonstrated a mastery of performance as well as huge mass appeal, evidenced by her two Grammy Awards and multiplatinum record sales. While some critics have written off Rimes's style as derivative of earlier country music heroes such as Patsy Cline, and chalked up her popularity to novelty appeal, few have discounted her powerful voice. As for staying power, she continues to draw critical acclaim a decade after her major label debut at age 13.

Born on August 28, 1982, to parents Belinda and Wilbur in Jackson, Mississippi, Rimes was initiated into the performing arts at a surprisingly early age. Having no siblings, she received the lavish affection that parents of only children often afford, and was enrolled in vocal and dance training by the age of two. Whether she was motivated by avid stage parents or by an indelible performing urge, Rimes was singing in pitch when she was 18 months, assuring Belinda and Wilbur to continue nurturing their precocious child's talents. Following the advice of LeAnn's vocal coach, Rimes's parents decided to plunge their daughter into the often hectic world of child talent competitions, and successfully ushered her on the stage by age five. Within a year, Rimes won her first song and dance contest, with her version of "Getting to Know You," and professed to her parents that she wanted performing to be a permanent part of her life.

Eager to realize his daughter's dreams, Wilbur Rimes "sold his truck and his dogs and everything," as LeAnn told USA Today, and left Jackson in 1988 to relocate to Garland, Texas. It was in the Lone Star State that the youthful star-to-be began making rapid inroads to success. Rimes nearly landed the lead role in a sequel to the blockbuster Broadway musical Annie. Persistent, she continued auditioning for stage roles until she was chosen to play Tiny Tim in a Dallas production of A Christmas Carol. After a triumph on the television showcase for aspiring amateurs, Star Search, and a string of appearances on Johnny High's Country Music Revue in Fort Worth, Texas, Rimes began to attract the attention of national talent scouts.

Not even a decade old, Rimes was already a virtual veteran of live performances. She regularly performed an a capella rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" during the opening ceremonies of Dallas Cowboys football games, adding to her local legion of fans. In addition, Rimes and her father embarked on trips around the country to perform over a hundred stage dates per year. Nonetheless, touring and word of mouth could only generate so much attention, and the next logical step in Rimes's career path was to enter the recording studio.

The creation of Rimes's debut album, After All, was a relatively quiet affair. Recorded at an old studio in Clovis, New Mexico for Norman Petty's old independent label Nor Va Jak, After All did not receive the promotional fanfare that accompanies major label debuts. Rimes's father, a salesman by profession, served as the record's producer, and the result was neither slick nor seamless. While the album saw an impressive sales run within Texas, Nor Va Jak could not give After All the push it needed to sweep a national audience. Yet, Rimes and her father were quickly hit by an onslaught of contract offers from major labels to record a second album.

The primary source of record industry hype over Rimes's debut, After All, was largely provoked by that album's cut "Blue," a bittersweet composition that perfectly displayed the range of Rimes's vocal stylings. The song was penned over 30 years prior to its recording, and was originally intended for country legend Patsy Cline, who died tragically before she could perform it. Cline's distinctive, haunting voice had served to influence several generations of singers, many of them outside the realm of country music. For them, Cline stood as a model not only of artistic precision and clarity, but also of resonant emotional expression. In order for the song's author Bill Mack to have given to a newcomer a piece tailored expressly for Cline's style and mastery, Rimes must have evidenced some of the elder singer's attributes. Indeed, some critics have argued that Rimes's talent is only in reproducing Cline's unique sound without offering any innovation, while others have claimed that although technically almost flawless, Rimes's singing is devoid of emotional depth that only a life of experience can provide.

Rimes's father initially turned down "Blue" on the grounds that a sensual lament of love was not appropriate for a young girl's repertoire. "My dad said the song was too old for me," Rimes remembered. "I loved it, though, and I kept bugging him about it. Then I got the idea to put the yodel thing to it." Whether through her yodeled twists or through her youthful freshness, Rimes managed to make "Blue" her own, and whatever the critical verdict, she was on the eve of becoming a national sensation.

In the meantime, Rimes's personal life underwent some changes. With so much public attention imbued upon her as well as the beginnings of a plane-hopping lifestyle, Rimes quickly found herself at odds with the normal routine of a young student. By the time she entered junior high school, classmates in response to her rising fame occasionally harassed Rimes. For sake of convenience, she withdrew from school and continued her education with a tutor. While a private education only helped Rimes excel, it also effectively withdrew her from her peers at a critical age. However, Rimes saw the experience as a positive one. "I don't think I'm giving up a lot, because I'm achieving a lot right now," she told the Los Angeles Times. "I do have a different life and I've grown up in an adult world ... I don't mind giving up the prom kind of thing and all that. I really don't think I'm missing out on anything 'cause this is what I want to do."

With this kind of devotion, Rimes began work on her sophomore release, after signing with the Curb label, an outfit known for its roster of country artists. The result was the album Blue, whose title cut was a reworked version from After All, now made available to audiences around the world. The album includes "Cattle Call," a duet between Rimes and country great Eddy Arnold, "I'll Get Even With You," another refurbishing from After All, and "Talk To Me," which the then-13-year-old Rimes co-wrote. However, it was still "Blue" itself that turned heads and invaded radio playlists. With no video promotion, the single "Blue" debuted at number 49 on Billboard magazine's country music charts, making Rimes the youngest singer to do so, and the single rapidly peaked in the Top 10. The album Blue fared equally well in sales, and Rimes was instantly country music's hottest property.

Whatever speculations some critics may have made, Rimes was showered with kudos from the music industry. She was nominated for both Single of the Year and the Horizon Award by the Country Music Association (CMA), making her the youngest nominee in CMA's history. More impressively, Rimes earned the Grammy Award for Best Female Vocalist in Country and Western, beating out four other seasoned nominees as the youngest recipient ever to win that award. Slowly, the voices accusing Rimes of being a mere novelty began to subside, if not disappear.

Her third album, You Light Up My Life: Inspirational Songs, an album of covers of classic songs, came out in 1997. Her fictional debut, Holiday in Your Heart, was also published that year--a short novel cowritten with Tom Carter. This was also the title and subject of the television Christmas special in which Rimes appeared. Some bad news that year occurred in October, when her parents separated; they divorced in 1999.

Rimes set a new record in 1998 when her song, "How Do I Live," became the longest-running single in Billboard's Hot 100 Singles chart's history. She released the album, Sittin' on Top of the World, that year. She recorded "Written in the Stars" with Elton John for the stage musical, Aida, and released the album, LeAnn Rimes, in 1999.

Rimes filed a lawsuit on May 2, 2000, in the Dallas County District Court, alleging that her father, Wilbur C. Rimes, and her former manager, Lyle Walker, took more than $7 million from her over five years. The lawsuit claimed the two men charged unreasonable fees and manipulated LeAnn's company for their own financial gain. She was seeking unspecified damages because her attorneys didn't know how much money was gone. Her lawyer said accountants hired by LeAnn's mother to investigate the two men discovered that the pair had received more than $8 million in royalties--$5 million more than did LeAnn. In November of 2000, Rimes filed another lawsuit, this time against her label, Curb Records. She was asking to be released from the contract her parents signed on her behalf when she was 12 years old. Rimes also wanted Curb to turn over the rights to all of her past music and video work, give up publishing interests, and destroy all her recordings now being distributed. A happier occurrence was her acting debut in the film Coyote Ugly, in which her four songs on the soundtrack--written by Diane Warren--signalled a stylistic move away from country music. The two entered into subsequent collaborations for "We Can," which was the lead single from the Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde soundtrack in 2003. Her legal battles were resolved in part in December of 2001, when Curb Records agreed to rewrite her contract to meet Rimes's approval. In another courtroom drama--also resolved at that time--her former bodyguard, Robert Lavetta, made a deal with prosecutors, thus avoiding prison time in an extortion case by which Rimes was victimized by Lavetta.

As for the legal feud between Rimes and her father, the two made peace in time for him to attend her February 23, 2002, wedding at Perkins Chapel in Dallas, Texas. Rimes married Dean Sheremet, a dancer whom she met while hosting the Academy of Country Music Awards in May of 2001. The couple lives in Nashville, Tennessee.

Professionally in 2002 Rimes collaborated with others in writing four tracks from Fallen Angel, including the album's title track. She in fact served as executive producer on this album and was intensely involved in the entire production.

Among her charitable involvements in the 2000s, she launched the Salvation Army's annual Red Kettle Campaign in 2002 with a half-time performance during the Dallas Cowboys' football game on November 28. In 2003 she headlined the inaugural Cattle Baron's Ball, a benefit for the American Cancer Society at the Michigan State Fair Grounds.

As 2003 saw the publication of her first children's book, Jag, by Dutton Books and the release of her Greatest Hits album, it was apparent that Rimes's greater role in the history of country music remained to be written. She earned critical acclaim with the release of her eighth studio album, This Woman, in 2005. Also that year she recorded "Remember When," the theme song for the Disneyland fiftieth anniversary celebration; and she joined the cast of a reality series, Nashville Star, on USA Network. Regardless, her versatility and long-term creative ambitions bode well for her to escape the dour fate of many other former child stars.

by Shaun Frentner and Ken Burke

LeAnn Rimes's Career

Began singing when 18 months old, won first talent contest at age six for performing "Getting To Know You"; competed on the television talent showcase Star Search, 1988; performed "The Star Spangled Banner" at Dallas Cowboys football games, early 1990s; a regular on Johnnie High Country Musical Revue early to mid-1990s; recorded her debut LP After All for the Texas-based label Nor Va Jak, 1994; began her association with Curb Records where her debut Blue made her commercial breakthrough, 1996; recorded the LP You Light Up My Life: Inspirational Songs and her first book of fiction Holiday in Your Heart is released, 1997; released the album Sittin' on Top of the World, 1998; released LeAnn Rimes, 1999; appeared in the movie Coyote Ugly, 2000; issued two new Curb albums: I Need You and God Bless America, 2001; released the more rock/pop-oriented Twisted Angel LP and portrayed Connie Francis on the NBC retro-drama American Dreams, 2002; co-wrote her first children's book Jag and at the age of 22 released the collection Greatest Hits on Curb, 2003; released What a Wonderful World, 2004; This Woman, 2005.

LeAnn Rimes's Awards

Grammy Award, Best New Artist, 1996; Academy of Country Music, Top New Female Vocalist, Single of the Year for "Blue," Song of the Year, 1996; American Music Award, Favorite New Artist, 1997; CMA Horizon Award, 1997; TNN/Music City News, Female Star of Tomorrow, 1997; Grammy Award, Best Female Country Vocal Performance, 1997; Billboard Award, Coyote Ugly, 2001.

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