Chely Wright

  • Wellsville, KS
    hometown
  • Country
    genre
  • 1994
    started
  • Bio
    full story
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About Chely Wright

Official Site: http://chely.com/ | @chelywright | facebook.com/chelyw


After several years of hard touring, Chely Wright broke through to become a chart-topping star on the contemporary country scene. Born Richelle Renee Wright in Kansas City in 1970, she grew up in the small town of Wellsville, KS, and fell in love with country music before she'd even started school. She took piano lessons starting at age four and began singing in groups at 11, also playing trumpet in her school band. At 14 she started performing in local clubs with a backing band called County Line, which featured her father on bass. The summer after her junior year of high school she performed in the long-running Ozark Jubilee show, and as a senior she successfully auditioned for a job impersonating female country stars at Nashville's Opryland theme park. She moved there permanently in 1989 and spent the next three years working at Opryland and an assortment of day jobs. Eventually, she landed a publishing deal on the strength of her songwriting, and a record contract with Mercury/Polydor followed.

Wright's debut album, Woman in the Moon, was released in 1994 and attracted positive notice from some critics and the country music community, earning her a Top New Female Vocalist award from the ACM. Unfortunately, neither it nor its follow-up, 1996's Right in the Middle of It, sold very well. Wright asked for her release from Polydor and moved over to MCA, where she had the opportunity to work with the commercially savvy producer Tony Brown. Though it wasn't a smash, Wright's 1997 label debut, Let Me In, did make the country Top 40 and gave the singer her first Top 20 hit in "Shut Up and Drive." Moreover, her constant touring was paying off in the form of a growing fan base, setting the stage for her breakthrough with 1999's Single White Female. The album's title track became Wright's first number one hit, and the following year she and Brad Paisley performed a duet on their co-composition "Hard to Be a Husband, Hard to Be a Wife." Her next album, Never Love You Enough, became her first to break the country Top Ten, and she reached the Top 30 with the title track and "Jezebel." In 2004, after leaving MCA, she released Everything, a collection of leftover session material not included on her previous releases, on her own Painted Red imprint. In 2005 Wright moved over to Dualtone for The Metropolitan Hotel. After a long tour, Wright took an extended break from recording, and finally re-emerged in 2010 with Lifted Off the Ground on Vanguard, as well as the written memoir Like Me: Confessions of a Heartland Country Singer from Random House. In May of 2010, Ms. Wright came out as gay in a People Magazine profile on her album and autobiography. ~ Steve Huey, Rovi

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Music

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  • Shut Up And Drive
    chely-wright
    Video
    Shut Up And Drive
  • Never Love You Enough
    chely-wright
    Video
    Never Love You Enough
  • The River
    chely-wright
    Video
    The River
  • Single White Female
    chely-wright
    Video
    Single White Female
  • Jezebel
    chely-wright
    Video
    Jezebel
  • 6726
    SoundStream
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    song name
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    All the music you want, just 10 bucks a month. Try it free.
    • Single White Female
      http://listen.vo.llnwd.net/g2/4/1/7/5/1/915315714.mp3
    • Jezebel
      http://listen.vo.llnwd.net/g2/8/6/0/1/9/915991068.mp3
    • It Was
      http://listen.vo.llnwd.net/g2/9/0/1/5/1/915315109.mp3
    • Shut Up And Drive
      http://listen.vo.llnwd.net/g2/3/5/4/6/7/915376453.mp3
    • Never Love You Enough
      http://listen.vo.llnwd.net/g2/1/6/0/1/9/915991061.mp3
    • She Went Out For Cigarettes
      http://listen.vo.llnwd.net/g2/0/3/0/1/9/915991030.mp3

Photos

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  • Beverly Kopf (left), Chely Wright and Bobbie Birleffi attend the Nashville Film Festival on April 15, 2011.
    Chely Wright
    Beverly Kopf (left), Chely Wright and Bobbie Birleffi attend the Nashville Film Festival on April 15, 2011.
    Beth Gwinn/Getty Images
  • Chely Wright (left) and Lauren Blitzer attend the Nashville Film Festival on April 15, 2011.
    Chely Wright
    Chely Wright (left) and Lauren Blitzer attend the Nashville Film Festival on April 15, 2011.
    Beth Gwinn/Getty Images
  • Chely Wright (left), Carolyn Dawn Johnson and Lauren Blitzer attend the Nashville Film Festival on April 15, 2011.
    Chely Wright
    Chely Wright (left), Carolyn Dawn Johnson and Lauren Blitzer attend the Nashville Film Festival on April 15, 2011.
    Beth Gwinn/Getty Images
  • Chely Wright attends the Nashville Film Festival on April 15, 2011.
    Chely Wright
    Chely Wright attends the Nashville Film Festival on April 15, 2011.
    Beth Gwinn/Getty Images
  • Chely Wright
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    Laura Crosta
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  • Chely Wright
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    Michael Granberry
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News

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  • Chely Wright
    Around the Web: Chely Wright Gives Birth to Twins
    CMT News
    May 20, 2013
    Chely Wright and wife welcome twin baby boys. Lauren Alaina and more announced for CMA Fest Bud Light stage. Faith Hill denies rumors she will be a ...
    Read More
  • Chely Wright
    Chely Wright Deals With Audience Backlash After Coming Out
    www.rollingstone.com
    Chely Wright -- the country singer who came out as a lesbian in an issue of People Magazine last May -- told the lesbian entertainment site Audiostrad...
    Read More
  • Chely Wright
    Chely Wright Comes Out As Country Music's First Openly Gay Singer | Billboard.com
    www.billboard.com
    Growing online buzz and speculation came to a head this past weekend when it was revealed that country artist Chely Wright, 39, would announce that sh...
    Read More
  • Chely Wright
    Chely Wright Says Coming Out Led to Death Threats, Decreased Sales | Billboard.com
    www.billboard.com
    Wright, who publicly announced that she is lesbian in a May 2010 interview in People, reveals in a new blog profile that since coming out, her career ...
    Read More
  • Chely Wright
    Chely Wright Engaged to Gay Activist | Billboard.com
    www.billboard.com
    People magazine Wednesday. Connecticut is one of five U.S. states that has legalized same-sex marriage. Wright in 1995 was named best new female vocal...
    Read More
  • Chely Wright
    Musician Chely Wright to open LGBT center in KC
    music.yahoo.com
    RELATED CONTENTEnlarge Photo FILE - In this Oct. 8, 2010 file photo, musician Chely Wright arrives at the Gay, ... KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- When count...
    Read More
  • Chely Wright
    Musician Chely Wright to open LGBT center in Mo.
    music.yahoo.com
    RELATED CONTENTEnlarge Photo FILE - In this Oct. 8, 2010 file photo, musician Chely Wright arrives at the Gay, ... KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- When count...
    Read More
  • Chely Wright
    Musician Chely Wright to open LGBT center in US
    music.yahoo.com
    RELATED CONTENTEnlarge Photo FILE - In this Oct. 8, 2010 file photo, musician Chely Wright arrives at the Gay, ... KANSAS CITY, Missouri (AP) -- When ...
    Read More
  • Chely Wright
    Frank Ocean, Chely Wright Up for GLAAD Awards | Billboard
    www.billboard.com
    R&B star Frank Ocean, country singer Chely Wright and the NBC series "Smash" are among the nominees for the 24th Annual GLAAD Media Awards, which were...
    Read More
  • Chely Wright
    First Comes Love, Then Comes MarriageNow Its Twin Baby Carriages For Chely Wright
    www.rollingstone.com
    Chely Wright and Lauren Blitzer-Wright Jason LaVeris Chely Wright, who made headlines in 2010 as the first country star to publicly come out as a lesb...
    Read More
  • Chely Wright
    Chely Wright Announces Gender Of Twins
    www.rollingstone.com
    Country singer Chely Wright will be delivering twin babies this summer...and, it looks as if she's going to have a pair of little cowboys! Wright anno...
    Read More

Discography

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  • Lifted Off the Ground (2010)
    Chely Wright
    Lifted Off the Ground (2010)
    Vanguard
  • The Metropolitan Hotel (2005)
    Chely Wright
    The Metropolitan Hotel (2005)
    KRB Music
  • Everything [Bonus DVD] (2004)
    Chely Wright
    Everything [Bonus DVD] (2004)
    Painted Red
  • Never Love You Enough (2001)
    Chely Wright
    Never Love You Enough (2001)
    MCA Nashville
  • Single White Female (1999)
    Chely Wright
    Single White Female (1999)
    MCA Nashville
  • Let Me In (1997)
    Chely Wright
    Let Me In (1997)
    MCA Nashville
  • Right in the Middle of It (1996)
    Chely Wright
    Right in the Middle of It (1996)
    Polydor Nashville
  • Woman in the Moon (1994)
    Chely Wright
    Woman in the Moon (1994)
    Polydor Nashville
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