Wynnona Judd Biography

Wynnona Judd Biography

Wynonna Judd is an American country music singer. Born Christina Claire Ciminella, she was renamed Wynonna Ellen Judd Roach, a name adapted from the line "Don't forget Winona" in the pop song "Route 66". Most commonly, however, she is credited by the singular name Wynonna.  Wynonna made her musical debut in the 1980s, alongside her mother Naomi in the country duo The Judds. Between 1983 and 1991, The Judds charted twenty-three hit singles on the Billboard Hot Country Singles (now Hot Country Songs) charts, including fourteen Number Ones; they also recorded eight studio albums and two Greatest Hits compilations.  After a bout of hepatitis forced Naomi to retire, Wynonna embarked on a solo career. Her self-titled solo debut album was released in 1991. It produced three straight Number One singles and was certified 5× Multi-Platinum in the United States for sales of five million copies. Since then, Wynonna has recorded eight more studio albums, all on Curb Records. These albums have produced more than twenty-five hits on the country charts, including four Number Ones and seven additional Top Ten hits.

Before launching her solo career, Wynonna sang with her mother as part of one of the most successful and celebrated country music duos. Together, they were known as The Judds. Wynonna is an active and vocal member of the Recording Artists' Coalition, an American music industry organization that represents recording artists, and attempts to defend their rights and interests. Some of her achievements include 20 number-one singles, multiple gold, platinum, and multi-platinum albums, multiple Grammy awards and a performance at Super Bowl XXVIII in 1994.  On April 2, 1992 Wynonna performed solo on television for the first time at the American Music Awards. She unveiled "She Is His Only Need", her first single off her self titled solo debut album.  In November 2003, Wynonna appeared on an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show discussing what she described as a "severe" dependency on food. She had been working with the show in an effort to lose a significant amount of weight and get to the root of her dependency. In September 2005 Wynonna made a second appearance on the show, discussing how she had lost some weight (but had yet to reach her goal weight); had patched up broken relationships with her mother, and with the man she considered "her dad", Michael Ciminella, from whom she had been estranged for almost a decade. Both Naomi and Michael visited Wynonna at the Shades of Hope rehab center in Buffalo Gap, Texas during a family visit, where Wynonna, 42, was being treated for food addiction. In September 2005, in an interview for The Insider, Wynonna also talked about being sexually assaulted by an acquaintance when she was younger.  Although she is associated with the country genre, she has also ventured into other music genres by allowing her cover version of "I Want To Know What Love Is" to be released as a dance track, where it peaked at number 12 on Billboard Radio Monitor's Hot Dance Airplay chart in 2005.