Biography of Reba McentireReba Nell McEntire (born March 28, 1955) is a Grammy award winning American singer and country music performer, and actress. Sometimes referred to as "The Queen of Country Music", she is known for her lively stage-shows and pop-tinged ballads. She has issued 31 albums, with over 50 million records sold worldwide.
Reba McEntire was the most successful female recording artist in country music in the 1980s and 1990s, during which time she scored 22 number one hits and released five gold albums, six platinum albums, two double-platinum albums, four triple-platinum albums, a quadruple-platinum album, and a quintuple-platinum album, for certified album sales of 33.5 million over the 20-year period. She expanded her activities as an actress in film and on the legitimate stage, and particularly on television, where she starred in a long-running situation comedy, Reba, which lasted from 2001 to 2007.
Reba McEntire was born in McAlester, Oklahoma on March 28, 1955 to Clark Vincent McEntire and Jacqueline Smith (a sharecropper's daughter). She grew up near Chockie, Oklahoma, learning to ride in rodeos, as well as how to sing and play music. She soon formed a singing group with her brother and sister, known as The Singing McEntires. Her sister Susie Luchsinger maintains a successful career in Christian music, while her brother Pake McEntire also had success as a country music artist in the 1980s. The trio had a local hit with "The Ballad of John McEntire," a tribute to their grandfather, that was aired by local disc jockey Glen Steele in 1971. Older sister Alice was not involved in the group.
After divorcing Charlie Battles in 1987, McEntire married Narvel Blackstock, her manager and former steel guitar player, on June 3, 1989, in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. The couple took control over all aspects of her career. They have one son, Shelby Steven McEntire Blackstock, who was born on February 23, 1990.
In 1974, while a student at Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant, McEntire sang "The Star Spangled Banner" at the National Rodeo Finals in Oklahoma City. Rodeo attendee and country singer Red Steagall suggested that she go to Nashville to pursue a solo career. She scored a contract with Mercury Records and she began her professional career with a hard honky tonk sound, which didn't go over well at a time when country music was dominated by outlaw country artists like Willie Nelson and David Allan Coe. Around the time of the release of her first album, she married Charlie Battles, a professional steer wrestler and bulldogger.
McEntire's first charting single was the song "I Don't Want To Be A One Night Stand," which peaked at #88 in 1976. The song was from McEntire's debut album, Reba McEntire. Her first top twenty entry came in 1978, with the double-A sided single "Three Sheets In the Wind/I'd Really Love to See You Tonight" (duets with Jacky Ward). This was a one-off single, however, not appearing on any album. Her second album, "Out of a Dream," gave her 5 top 40 hits, the biggest one being a rendition of Patsy Cline's "Sweet Dreams," which made it to #19 in 1979. McEntire considers Cline as one of her biggest influences on her career today.
McEntire's first top 10 single was the song "(You Lift Me Up) To Heaven" from the album Feel The Fire. The song peaked at #8 on the country singles chart. Her first number one single was the song "Can't Even Get The Blues No More," which hit the top spot in 1982. The following single, "You're The First Time I've Thought About Leaving," also hit number one. Both songs were from the album Unlimited. These songs, like others at the time had a Country-Pop sound to them, unlike some of McEntire's later hits.
With more pop-oriented balladry, Reba McEntire began to expand her audience during the early 1980s. In 1984, she signed to MCA Nashville and quickly became one of the best-selling country artists of all time. She released her first album with the label, Just a Little Love, the same year. After McEntire signed with MCA, Mercury released The Best of Reba McEntire in 1985. Two years later, she released her first collection of greatest hits for MCA, simply titled Greatest Hits. No new material was recorded for the album. The album was later released under the same title Reba McEntire's Greatest Hits in 1992, which featured an alternate album cover.
McEntire had bigger plans for second album under MCA. Set to have Harold Shedd produce her next album, she rejected his suggestions for songs and the sweetened arrangements he imposed on them and appealed to Jimmy Bowen, the newly installed president of MCA's country division. Bowen allowed her to pick her own material and to eliminate the strings and other pop touches used on Just a Little Love and her Mercury releases. The result was titled My Kind of Country, released in November 1984, which was dominated by covers of old country songs previously performed by Ray Price, Carl Smith, Connie Smith, and Faron Young. Even before the album's release, however, and before its advance single, "How Blue," hit number one. My Kind of Country was McEntire's first album to go "Gold" by the RIAA, while it also peaked at No. 13 on the Top Country Albums chart. The second (and last) single from the album, "Somebody Should Leave" also hit No. 1, and set the stage for a string of McEntire hits that would eventually reach No. 1 on the Country charts.
McEntire won the Female Vocalist of the Year award from the Country Music Association four times in a row (1984, 1985, 1986, 1987). She is the only woman in the Association's history to win the award four years in a row, but not the only woman to win the award four times. Martina McBride shares that honor with McEntire (1999, 2002, 2003, 2004). McEntire is one of only five solo female artists (others include Shania Twain, Barbara Mandrell, Dolly Parton, and Loretta Lynn) to win the Country Music Association's highest honor, Entertainer of the Year.
In 1986, McEntire released the album Whoever's in New England. The album, along with the title track, are considered the album and song that put McEntire on the map and from then on, Reba McEntire was a household name. While "Whoever's In New England" was not her first number one single (it was actually her fifth), the song was considered her first career record. The album was her first number one album. The song also earned McEntire her first Grammy Award. It is seen by many as an "answer song" to Barry Manilow's 1976 "Weekend in New England" hit, as sung by the wife of a philandering husband who has an ongoing affair with someone in New England. Later that year, Southeastern Oklahoma State University honored her as a distinguished alumna. By this time, McEntire started co-producing her own records, starting with Whoever's In New England. She would continue this tradition the rest of her career.
Three songs from McEntire's 1988 album Reba, "Do Right By Me," "Wish I Were Only Lonely" and "New Fool At An Old Game," were also recorded by Canadian country music singer Michelle Wright the same year and included on her debut album, Do Right By Me. "New Fool At An Old Game" reached #1, as did the single "I Know How He Feels." The album's lead-off single was "A Sunday Kind of Love," a cover of the 1947 Jo Stafford pop hit. It peaked at number five in July.
Also in 1988, McEntire founded Starstruck Entertainment, a company that handled management, booking, publishing, and other aspects of her career and, eventually, represented other artists as well.
McEntire released two albums in 1989. Sweet Sixteen was released in May, while a live LP, Reba Live, was released three months later. The album Sweet Sixteen featured the number one hit "Cathy's Clown," a song recorded originally by The Everly Brothers.
McEntire's string of number one hits continued throughout the 1980s and into the early 1990s. In 1990, McEntire released the album Rumor Has It. The album featured the number one hit "You Lie" and it also included the song "Fancy." The latter became McEntire's signature song and CMT ranked it at #26 on its list of the 100 Greatest Country Songs. The video ranked #35 on the list of the 100 Greatest Country Videos. "Fancy" was considered one of the greatest songs of all time.
In February 2001, Reba McEntire stepped in as a replacement star in the Broadway revival of Irving Berlin's musical Annie Get Your Gun that had begun performances in 1999 with Bernadette Peters in the title role of Annie Oakley. McEntire had been preceded as a replacement in Annie Get Your Gun by soap opera star Susan Lucci and TV actress Cheryl Ladd, both of whom kept the show going while being largely ignored or derided by theater insiders. McEntire turned out to be an entirely different proposition. Although she lacked legitimate theater experience, she had by now done plenty of acting on television and even a little in film. Second, she had long since brought unusually high production values to her concerts that included choreography and costume changes, good preparation for similar demands in the theater. Third, she could, of course, sing. And fourth, with her rodeo background and Oklahoma accent, she was an ideal Annie Oakley, just as she had been in her previous TV portrayal. The result was a triumph for McEntire. Reviews were ecstatic, and tickets sold out. The Tony Awards did not have a category for replacements, but she was given special awards for her performance by the Drama Desk, the Outer Critics Circle, and Theatre World. She stayed in the show until June 22. Even though there was no new cast album recorded to immortalize her appearance, a promotional CD containing only McEntire's performances of "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun" and "I Got Lost in His Arms" was made to be sent to discount members.
In October 2001, McEntire began her critically acclaimed, Emmy nominated TV show, Reba. The show became an instant hit on the WB network, becoming the most-watched comedy series on the network ever and earned McEntire a People's Choice Award and a Golden Globe nomination. At the same time the show began, McEntire released her third collection of greatest hits. Greatest Hits Vol. 3: I'm a Survivor featured twelve hits and three new songs including the theme song to her TV show, "I'm A Survivor." For the next two years, McEntire would spend her time working on her television series.
In 2003, Reba McEntire returned to music with the album Room to Breathe. The album went platinum nine months after its release and featured McEntire's most recent number one, and her first since 1998, "Somebody." Every song released from the album, four in total, hit the top 20. In the summer of 2004, McEntire returned to the concert stage with her first tour in three years with the Reba McEntire 2004 Tour.
McEntire found time in the spring of 2005 to return to the musical theater, if only for one night. In another piece of inspired casting, she portrayed the "cock-eyed optimist" from Arkansas, Ensign Nellie Forbush, in a special concert version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific performed at Carnegie Hall. The all-star production, also featuring Broadway star Brian Stokes Mitchell and actor Alec Baldwin, was filmed for a PBS special on the network's Great Performances series and recorded for an album, both of which were released in 2006.
In November 2005, McEntire released Reba #1's. Along with two new songs, the two-disc collection featured every one of McEntire's singles that had ever reached No. 1 on any U.S. country music chart. The total figure of 33 includes 22 which reached No. 1 on Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, with the remainder having topped the country charts of Radio & Records, or of the now-defunct Cash Box or Gavin Report charts.
In 2006, McEntire began a multi-week concert stint at the Las Vegas Hitlon with REBA: Key to the Heart. In November 2006, McEntire was the first recipient of a star on the Music City Walk of Fame in downtown Nashville. She was honored along side Roy Orbison, Ronnie Milsap and others. The same month, McEntire was honored by CMT as the first recipient of the CMT Giant honor.
In February 2007, McEntire saw the end of her hit television sitcom, Reba, after six successful seasons. The same month McEntire performed with Kelly Clarkson for a taping of a future installment of CMT Crossroads. The program aired June 24 on CMT.
McEntire has been working on her Duets album for the past year and marks the final album due in her current contract with MCA Records. A new contract may be negotiated or she may switch to a new record label. The album was released on September 18 and features duets with some of the biggest names in music such as Justin Timberlake, Rascal Flatts, Faith Hill, LeAnn Rimes, and Carole King. The first single was a duet with Kelly Clarkson and a remake of Clarkson's song "Because of You." The song rose quickly up the country chart and became McEntire's 30th Top 2 country single, peaking at #2 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs, and is also her 5th Top 50 single. This ties her with Dolly Parton for the record among female country artists. In the summer of 2007, McEntire hit the road with the Key to the Heart Tour.
For the first time in her career, the album debuted at #1 on both pop and country album charts selling more than 300,000 copies in its first week. It has been recently certified platinum.
In early 2008, Reba will embark on the 2 Worlds, 2 Voices Tour 2008, a co-headlining tour with Kelly Clarkson.
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