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Biography of Faith Hill

Audrey Faith Perry McGraw, known professionally by her first married name Faith Hill (born September 21, 1967), is an American country singer, known for her commercial success as well as her marriage to fellow country singer Tim McGraw. Hill's "soulful and rasping voice" and talent for picking songs have helped her to sell over 30 million records and accumulate 11 number one singles on the Country charts.

Hill has been honored by the Country Music Association, the Academy of Country Music, the Grammy Awards, the American Music Awards and the People's Choice Awards. Her Soul2Soul II Tour 2006 with husband McGraw became the highest-grossing country tour of all time. In 2001 she was named one of the 30 most powerful women in America by Ladies Home Journal.

Hill was born Audrey Faith Perry in Ridgeland, Mississippi near Jackson, Mississippi. She was adopted as an infant, and raised by a couple in the nearby town of Star. Her adoptive parents raised their two (biological) sons and Hill in a very Christian environment.

Hill's vocal talent was apparent early, and she had her first public performance, a 4-H luncheon, when she was seven. By the time she was a teenager, Hill was a regular performer at area churches, even those not in her own Baptist denomination. At seventeen, Hill formed a band that played in local rodeos. She briefly attended college, but at 19 quit school to move to Nashville and pursue her dream of being a country singer. In her early days in Nashville, Hill auditioned to be a backup singer for Reba McEntire, but failed to secure the job. After a stint selling t-shirts, Hill became a secretary at a music publishing firm.

Apart from her quest for entry into the music industry, Hill also began working towards a more robust family life. In 1988 she married songwriter and music executive Dan Hill, who provided the surname she would use as she became famous. Two years later she began a search for her natural mother, whom she eventually met and with whom she still corresponds.

A co-worker heard Hill singing to herself one day, and soon the head of her music publishing company was encouraging her to become a demo singer for the firm. She supplemented this work by singing backup vocals for songwriter Gary Burr, who often performed his new songs at Nashville's Bluebird Cafe. During one of those performances, an executive from Warner Bros. Records was in the audience, and, impressed with Hill's voice, began the process of signing her to a recording contract.