Miranda Lambert Biography

Miranda Lambert Biography

Miranda Lambert is a two time Grammy Award nominated American country music singer-songwriter who gained fame as a finalist on the 2003 season of Nashville Star, where she finished in third place and later signed to Epic Records. Lambert made her debut with the release of "Me and Charlie Talking", the first single from her 2005 debut album Kerosene; this album, which was certified Platinum in the United States, also produced the singles "Bring Me Down", "Kerosene", and "New Strings". All four singles were Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts.

Lambert was transferred to Columbia Records Nashville for her second album, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, which was released in early 2007. Although its first single (the title track) failed to make top 40, the next two singles ("Famous in a Small Town" and "Gunpowder & Lead") became her highest-charting singles, with the latter becoming her first Top Ten country hit in July 2008.

Lambert grew up in Lindale, Texas. Her father Rick is a retired cop who in later life became a private investigator in partnership with her mother Beverly. Miranda was taught to shoot by her father at an early age and later became an avid deer hunter. Her parents took her to a Garth Brooks concert when she was nine and this started her interest in country music. Her father wrote and performed country music and she soon began singing in talent contests under his tutelage.

At age sixteen, Lambert began appearing on the Johnny High Country Music Review in Arlington, Texas, the same show that helped launch the career of LeAnn Rimes. Lambert quickly landed a recording session in Nashville, but left the studio after she became frustrated with the "pop" sound of music. She then went back to Texas and asked her dad to teach her how to play guitar so she could write her own songs. While still in high school, Lambert made her professional singing debut. She fronted the house band at the Reo Palm Isle Ballroom in Longview, Texas, a long-running venue that has showcased Elvis Presley and Willie Nelson.

In 2003, Lambert auditioned for the talent competition Nashville Star, eventually becoming a third-place finisher on the show. On September 15, 2003, she signed with Epic Records; her debut single, "Me and Charlie Talking" (co-written by her father and Heather Little), was released in summer of 2004 as the lead-off single to her debut album. Titled Kerosene, Lambert's first album comprised twelve songs, eleven of which she co-wrote. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard Top Country Albums charts, and eventually gained a Platinum certification by the RIAA for shipments of over one million copies, selling more than 930,000 copies up to July 2008. Overall, the album produced four Top 40 singles on the Billboard country charts. Lambert also toured with Keith Urban and George Strait in early 2006. In 2007, she toured with Toby Keith.

Lambert's second album, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend was released on May 1, 2007. She wrote eight of the album's eleven tracks, including its second single, "Famous in a Small Town." Much of the track "Gunpowder & Lead," currently her highest charting single to date, was written while she was taking a concealed handgun class in her home town.

In 2005, at the 40th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas, Lambert won the Cover Girl Fresh Face of Country Music Award. She was also nominated for the Country Music Association's Horizon Award in 2005; in 2007, Lambert also received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Country Vocal Performance for her single "Kerosene". She also won the Top New Female Vocalist award at the 2007 ACM (Academy of Country Music) Awards. At the 2008 ACM (Academy of Country Music) Awards, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend unexpectedly won Album of the Year. In 2007, Lambert began dating country singer Blake Shelton. Lambert also sang background vocals on Shelton's 2008 single "Home".