Faith Hill (born September 21, 1967) is an American country singer of the 1990s, known for her remarkable pop success as well as her much-publicized marriage to singer Tim McGraw. Hill was born in Jackson, Mississippi and began singing at a very early age. After graduating high school, Hill went to college briefly before dropping out and moving to Nashville in an attempt at starting a singing career. She also briefly married a music executive named Dan Hill. Working as a secretary to a music publishing company, Hill's singing was noticed as she sang to herself one day. She soon signed to Warner Brothers Records.
Hill's debut album was Take Me as I Am (1993 in music); sales were strong, buoyed by the chart success of "Wild One". The follow-up single, "Piece of My Heart" (Janis Joplin) also went to the top of the country charts. She was delayed in the recording of her second album by surgery on her vocal chords and it finally appeared in 1995 (see 1995 in music). It Matters to Me was another success, and the title track was her fourth #1 country single. In 1996, Hill began touring with Tim McGraw and married him that October. Their daughter, Gracie, was born in 1997, and their duet "It's Your Love" (off McGraw's Everywhere) was another hit single.
Hill's 1998 album, Faith, moved her closer towards a mainstream, pop-oriented sound, which lost her many of her longtime fans. "This Kiss" became a #1 country hit, and went to #7 on the pop charts. Hill's fame grew rapidly as she signed an endorsement deal with Cover Girl makeup and released Breathe, an even more successful pop hit that became one of the biggest albums of 2000 (see 2000 in music). "The Way You Love Me", "There You'll Be" and "Let's Make Love" were also commercially successful singles. In 2002, Hill released Cry.