LeAnn Rimes

• 1. Introduction

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  LeAnn Rimes is an American singer whose song "How Do I Live" spent 69 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, a new record for the longest-running single. She had found success in country music at age 13. Billboard ranked her 17th for sales across the 1990-1999 decade. Since 1996 she has placed more than 40 singles on international charts, and she has sold more than 48 million records worldwide. Those are the numbers of a veteran, yet her career began with a child's voice. How did a girl with a voice beyond her years become a star while still in school? Who steered a young singer's career, and what happened when she wanted the wheel? Why did a country artist keep wandering into pop, dance clubs, Christmas albums and chanting? And how did her private life end up as public as her voice?

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• 2. A Garland Prodigy

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  Jackson, Mississippi, is where Margaret LeAnn Rimes was born on the 28th of August 1982, the only child of Wilbur Rimes and Belinda Butler. The family moved to Garland, Texas, when she was six. At five she was already performing at local talent shows, and her parents enrolled her in vocal and dance classes.

  Her career began in musical theatre, including a Dallas production of A Christmas Carol. She came close to winning the lead in the Broadway production of Annie. Then she appeared on the television competition Star Search and held the championship for one week. That run pushed her toward country music instead of the stage.

  Arlington, Texas, was home to Johnnie High's Country Music Revue, and Rimes appeared there a number of times. Local talent scouts took notice. By age nine she was an experienced performer who toured the country with her father. She also sang an a cappella "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the opening of Dallas Cowboys games.

  In 1991 she released her debut album, Everybody's Sweetheart, on a small independent label called Nor Va Jak. Its success around the Dallas music community caught the attention of Bill Mack, a local disc jockey and record promoter. He was impressed by her ability. For the next three years he tried to place her with a major country label. At the center of his plan sat "Blue", a single he had released in 1958.

  In July 1994 Rimes put her first version of "Blue" on All That, her second and last Nor Va Jak album. She also co-wrote one song on it, "Share My Love". Mack then arranged a recording contract with Curb Records, and she signed with the Nashville label in 1996. At Curb she recorded "Blue" again, and which recording reached the public became a small mystery of its own.

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• 3. Blue and Patsy Cline

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  Patsy Cline is the name that hung over the whole project. According to Bill Mack, "Blue" was pitched to her in 1963, but she died before she could record it. A press release claimed Mack had been "waiting over 30 years to find the right vocalist to sing it". Other artists had in fact recorded the song over the years. Even so, the attention encouraged a belief that Rimes was Cline's successor, and critics kept drawing the comparison.

  Rimes herself complicated the picture. She stated that the version of "Blue" that reached number 10 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart was a recording she had made at age 11.

  Her first Curb album and third overall, also titled Blue, arrived in 1996. It sold 123,000 copies in its first week. It reached number one on Top Country Albums and debuted at number three on the Billboard 200. In March 1999 the RIAA certified it six times Platinum. Canada certified it triple Platinum, which at the time meant shipments of 300,000 copies there. By 2009 it had sold over eight million copies worldwide.

  "One Way Ticket (Because I Can)" gave Rimes her highest peak on the Billboard country singles chart, at number one. "The Light in Your Eyes" followed and reached number five. In Canada, both "Blue" and "One Way Ticket" made the top 10 on RPM Country Tracks, and "Blue" was her most successful single there. Shawn Haney of AllMusic called the album "delightful" and said it could "help inspire other young teens".

  The 39th Annual Grammy Awards in 1997 honored the title track with Best New Artist and Best Female Country Vocal Performance. Rimes became the youngest person to win either category. The Country Music Association gave her its Horizon Award that year, making her the youngest person ever nominated for and winning a CMA award. The Academy of Country Music had recognized her in 1996 with Top New Female Vocalist, Song of the Year and Single Record of the Year. She was nominated again in 1997 for the last two.

  By 1997, her parents had divorced.

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• 4. Crossing Into Pop

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  February 1997 brought Unchained Melody: The Early Years, a Curb reissue of the earlier independent album All That. It took its name from Rimes's cover of the 1955 standard by Alex North and Hy Zaret. That song reached number 3 on the Billboard country chart in March. The album topped the Billboard 200 and was certified double Platinum.

  That September, Curb released You Light Up My Life: Inspirational Songs, a record with far more adult contemporary than country in it. Its lead single was Diane Warren's "How Do I Live", which rose to number two on the Billboard Hot 100. Billboard magazine ranked it the most successful song of the 1990s. In the United Kingdom it peaked at number seven and was certified Platinum.

  The film Con Air did not use Rimes's version of that song on its soundtrack. The main reason was that the lyric was considered too mature for her age.

  A cover of Joseph Brooks's "You Light Up My Life" followed as the second single. It peaked at number 34 on the Hot 100 and was certified Gold. The album topped the Billboard 200 and was certified quadruple Platinum the following year for four million shipments.

  Holiday in Your Heart premiered on ABC on the 14th of December 1997 and marked Rimes's acting debut. The film was based on her book of the same title, released two months earlier. It was semi-autobiographical. Rimes played a country performer who learns that her grandmother has been hospitalized, and she sang several of her hits. It began a three-movie contract that ABC offered her in 1998. That year she also played a teen runaway in an episode of NBC's Days of Our Lives.

  Sittin' on Top of the World, released in 1998, drew mixed reviews. James Hunter of Rolling Stone placed her in the style of Mariah Carey and Celine Dion. In that style, he wrote, "a spectacular voice upstages a song, grins and goes on about her business." The album debuted at number two on Top Country Albums and number three on the Billboard 200. It produced the country hits "Commitment" at number four and "Nothin' New Under the Moon" at number 10. "Looking Through Your Eyes", from the film Quest for Camelot, reached the pop top 20.

  In 2000 Rimes contributed "I Need You" to the soundtrack of the 1999 television movie Jesus. It came out in July in both pop and country versions. The country version reached number eight on the country chart, and the pop version reached number 11 on the Hot 100. She also appeared in the film Coyote Ugly, contributed four songs to its soundtrack, and sang for Piper Perabo's character, Violet Sanford.

  "Can't Fight the Moonlight" came from that soundtrack in August and marked a shift toward pop. It reached number 11 on the Hot 100 and was certified Platinum. In the United Kingdom it topped the charts and went double Platinum. In Australia it was the biggest-selling single of 2001, spending six weeks at number 1. In total it earned Platinum certifications from six countries and Gold from three more. It also won a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Song from a Movie.

  On the 1st of October 2002 Rimes released Twisted Angel, produced mainly by Desmond Child. It mixed dance-pop with adult contemporary and sounded far more adult than her earlier albums. The single "Life Goes On" did well abroad, reaching number seven in Australia, but failed to chart on the Hot 100. "Tic Toc" became her first top-10 hit on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart. Critics and fans objected to the pop turn. Rimes said "people just didn't want me to experiment" and added "nope, no regrets whatsoever." The album was certified Gold.

  In July 2003 she published her first children's book, Jag. A Greatest Hits compilation followed in North America that November, with an international version, The Best of LeAnn Rimes, in February 2004. Both included a duet with Irish singer Ronan Keating, "Last Thing on My Mind", which reached number 5 on the UK singles chart. In October 2004 came her first Christmas album, What a Wonderful World.

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• 5. Courtroom Years

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  In May 2000, Rimes and her mother sued Wilbur Rimes in a district court in Dallas. The suit alleged that he took more than seven million dollars of her income over five years. The money was said to have come from Rimes personally and from a management company founded in 1995. Her former manager, Lyle Walker, who had helped her father with management duties, was also named. Her attorney could not say how much had been lost, so Rimes sought unspecified damages.

  November 2000 brought a second suit, this time against Curb Records, to nullify a recording contract her parents had signed on her behalf five years earlier. In January 2001 Curb released the compilation I Need You, which paired four earlier soundtrack appearances with six new tracks. Rimes publicly disowned it. She said it was assembled from studio outtakes and released without her knowledge or input.

  Curb kept promoting the record anyway and issued three singles from it. One was a country remix of "But I Do Love You", which had first appeared on the Coyote Ugly soundtrack. That version peaked at number 20 on the country chart. Stephen Erlewine called the album "her first full-fledged pop album". Chris Neal of Country Weekly wrote that "how you feel about I Need You will largely depend on whether you see LeAnn's shift toward pop as a positive development." The album was certified Platinum and reissued with extra tracks on the 23rd of March 2002.

  In May 2001, a Nashville court informed Rimes that she could not break her contract with Curb. Amid the reaction she visibly mouthed the words "I hate you" to her father. When she was 18, she filed a suit against Curb on her own and successfully petitioned a court to remove her status as a "minority" on the contract. That change made the contract binding. In November 2001 she was released from the original deal and signed a new agreement with the label on new terms.

  The suit against her father was "settled on undisclosed terms" in 2002. Wilbur Rimes said, "It is difficult to express just how happy I am that all of the legal troubles between my daughter and I are over." Father and daughter reconciled in time for her wedding, where he walked her down the aisle. She later told ABC News, "I've never hated my dad. I just wanted a dad."

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• 6. Country Again

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  January 2005 brought This Woman, Rimes's ninth studio album and a return to her country origins. She told Voice of America, "It's mainly a Country album, but it's my kind of Country music." It reached the top five of both the Billboard Country Albums chart and the Billboard 200. Three singles, "Nothin' 'Bout Love Makes Sense", "Probably Wouldn't Be This Way" and "Something's Gotta Give", all reached the country top five. The album was certified Gold.

  That year Rimes became host of Nashville Star, a talent competition on the USA Network. A vocal chord illness kept her from appearing in two episodes. In summer 2006 she released Whatever We Wanna, but This Woman was enjoying a resurgence in the United States. The American release was delayed and then canceled, so the album came out only overseas. In the United Kingdom it reached number 15.

  October 2007 saw Asylum-Curb issue Family, her eleventh studio album, with Rimes credited as a writer on every track. In 2008 she joined Kenny Chesney on his Poets and Pirates Tour. In February 2009 the third single from Family, "What I Cannot Change", became the first country song to top the Billboard dance charts.

  In 2011 she released Lady & Gentlemen, co-produced with country singer Vince Gill. It collected country songs first recorded by male artists, which she re-recorded from a female perspective. Entertainment Weekly's Mikael Wood found it "predictably solid". Her cover of John Anderson's "Swingin'" earned a Grammy nomination. The same year she starred in the television film Reel Love alongside Burt Reynolds and guest starred on Drop Dead Diva. She had also taken a supporting role in the movie Good Intentions in 2010, and in 2013 she appeared on the FX show Anger Management.

  Spitfire, released in 2013, was her final album with Curb. She co-produced it with keyboardist Darrell Brown and co-wrote nine of its 13 songs. Rimes said, "I used to get mad at the tabloids, but I should be thanking them because they helped me write this whole record." It sold 10,798 copies in its first week and debuted at number 36 on the Billboard 200. Several news outlets called the sales disappointing.

  In October 2014 Rimes issued One Christmas: Chapter 1 through Iconic Entertainment, led by a cover of Gayla Peevey's "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas". She had announced three Christmas EPs over three years. That plan was dropped for a full-length holiday album, Today Is Christmas, released through Prodigy Entertainment in 2015. It included a duet with Gavin DeGraw on Kenny Loggins's "Celebrate Me Home" and reached number two on the Holiday albums chart.

  In 2016 Rimes signed with RCA UK, an imprint of Sony Music Entertainment, and released a cover of Brandi Carlile's "The Story". It appeared on Remnants, her fifteenth studio album, which reached number 15 on the UK Albums Chart and number 88 on the Billboard 200 after its American release in February 2017. Its singles "Long Live Love" and "Love Is Love Is Love" topped the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart. In 2017 she made a cameo in the film Logan Lucky, singing "America the Beautiful".

  June 2018 brought Re-Imagined, an EP of five re-recorded songs from her back catalogue, including "Borrowed" with former Fleetwood Mac lead singer Stevie Nicks. Later that year she appeared in the Hallmark film It's Christmas, Eve and recorded its soundtrack. In 2019 she released her first live album, Rimes: Live at Gruene Hall.

  In 2020, Rimes competed as "Sun" on the fourth season of the Fox singing competition The Masked Singer. Her identity was revealed in the finale on the 16th of December 2020, where she was declared the winner. That November she had released Chant: The Human & the Holy, her sixteenth studio record. Its 12 tracks were built from chants and daily mantras. A health and wellness podcast, Wholly Human, followed. She explained, "As I started meditating I started chanting and singing."

  In 2022 Rimes released God's Work and marked her 25th year in the music industry with a CMT Crossroads episode on the 14th of April. Carly Pearce, Brandy Clark, Ashley McBryde and Mickey Guyton joined her. In April 2023 she collaborated with Tenille Arts on "Jealous of Myself". In 2024 she was a coach on The Voice Australia and The Voice UK, and in 2025 she was cast as Dixie Bennings on 9-1-1: Nashville.

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• 7. Voice and Influences

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  Entertainment Weekly's Don McLeese noticed Rimes's poise from the start. He wrote that she "already shows more poise and maturity than many artists twice her age." Rimes is a soprano, and critics of her early recordings kept returning to how mature she sounded for her years. The Washington Post wrote in 2005 that her voice was "Rich and worldly" and belied her youth, especially on a vintage-sounding song like "Blue".

  Her first album included Deborah Allen's "My Baby", whose lyrics say, "my baby is a full-time lover, my baby is a full-grown man." From a young age she chose material that seemed beyond her years.

  Chrissie Dickinson of The Chicago Tribune reviewed a 2005 concert and found her stage presence lacking. She still praised the voice as "a soaring instrument that can belt and whisper within the same song." Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote in 2011 that she had "become a stronger, more nuanced singer over the years." Jessica Goodman of Glamour said her 2016 song "Remnants" showcased the powerhouse vocals that made her famous.

  October 1999 brought LeAnn Rimes, her sixth studio album, which she co-produced with her father. It was a collection of country covers, mainly by Patsy Cline. Beth Johnson of Entertainment Weekly wrote that Rimes's voice "dares listeners to take note of what is missing in her interpretations." The album topped Top Country Albums for two weeks, peaked at number eight on the Billboard 200, and sold over one million copies in the United States. Its lead single, "Big Deal", reached number six on the country chart.

  Cline was the influence Rimes named most often. She said, "Patsy Cline was such a huge part of how I created my sound." She described Cline's gift as a "true, honest, emotional connection". In 2013 Rimes sang a tribute medley of Cline's songs at the American Country Awards.

  Other names appear on her list too: Alanis Morissette, Reba McEntire, Wynonna Judd, Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand and Whitney Houston. Early in her career she told The New York Times, "If I had to model my career after anyone it would have to be Reba." Her stated goal was to stay around for a long time.

  Critics have filed Rimes under adult contemporary, country, pop, teen pop, contemporary Christian, pop rock and dance-pop. Erlewine argued that she stayed anchored in country music, "regularly placing on Billboard's Country Top 40 and occasionally landing a big hit." Whatever the label, her next chapter moved from the stage to the tabloids.

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• 8. Life Off Stage

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  In 1998, Rimes dated actor Andrew Keegan, who was 19 when they met. She was 15. The couple dated while she and her father were in a lawsuit, and in that suit her father claimed Keegan was trying to "get his hands" on her finances. The relationship ended in 2001. According to press reports, Keegan became romantically interested in her Coyote Ugly co-star, Piper Perabo.

  Shortly afterward, Rimes met dancer Dean Sheremet at the 36th Academy of Country Music Awards in 2001. They were engaged by December. In 2002, at age 19, she married him in a church ceremony in Dallas. In 2003 they bought a home in Nashville for 1.7 million dollars, and in 2007 Sheremet choreographed her single "Nothin' Better to Do". According to People, they spent more time apart as Rimes pursued acting in Los Angeles while he stayed in Nashville. They separated in July 2009, and the divorce was finalized on the 19th of June 2010, exactly six months after Sheremet filed.

  Northern Lights, a 2009 Lifetime film based on a 2004 book by Nora Roberts, put Rimes opposite actor Eddie Cibrian. Reports surfaced in March 2009 of the two embracing at a restaurant. Publicity about their real-life affair helped make it the network's most-watched television movie, with four and a half million viewers. Cibrian's wife, Brandi Glanville, filed for divorce in August 2009, ending eight years of marriage and leaving two sons.

  In June 2010 Rimes spoke about the end of her first marriage. She said, "I take responsibility for everything I've done. I hate that people got hurt, but I don't regret the outcome." She moved into Cibrian's California home that month, and Billboard announced their engagement in December. They married on the 22nd of April 2011 at a private home in California, in a 40-person ceremony that included Cibrian's sons. In 2014 the couple starred in the VH1 series LeAnn & Eddie, meant to "help clear the air". It was cancelled after one season. By 2018 Glanville said, "We're like sister wives. It's me and LeAnn and Eddie."

  In 2008, Rimes spoke about her lifelong struggle with psoriasis, an autoimmune disease, and took part in a public service announcement about it. In August 2012, one day after her birthday, she checked into treatment for anxiety and stress. In March 2014 her jaw dislocated during a concert and ended her encore early. She attributed it to temporomandibular joint dysfunction. In 2020, after a stress-related psoriasis flare-up, she posed nude for a Glamour photo shoot on World Psoriasis Day. She also told People she had suffered depression in 2010.

  In 2008 Rimes lent her voice to "Just Stand Up", whose proceeds benefited Stand Up to Cancer. Its fundraising allowed the group's scientific advisory committee to award $73.6 million toward cancer research. In 2009 the Academy of Country Music gave her a special humanitarian award. In December 2010 she sang "The Rose" with The Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles in remembrance of gay teenagers who died by suicide that year. In 2017 she revealed that her uncle was gay and had died of AIDS. She said that every time she sings, she gets to give him a voice.

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