Michelle Wright

Michelle Wright

Michelle Wright, singer (b at Merlin, Ont 1 July 1962). Michelle Wright left her Chatham home at age 19 for a career in country music. She performed extensively across Canada and the United States before finally securing a recording contract in Nashville. Do Right by Me, her first record, released in 1988, met with modest success. Her years of touring, though, had endeared the husky-voiced singer to fans across North America; her self-titled second album produced 4 hit songs and made Wright a major country music star. Her 1992 album, Now & Then, was a huge success in the United States and earned her honours as Best New Female Vocalist from the Academy of Country Music. Michelle Wright had emerged as Canada's premier country music performer. Her 1994 album, The Reasons Why, shipped gold (pre-release sales of 50 000 copies) in Canada, the first time a Canadian country artist had ever accomplished that. Her fifth album, For Me It's You, was released in 1996, and in 1999 she celebrated her first 10 years as an international recording artist with the release of Michelle Wright: The Greatest Hits Collection. She followed that up in 2002 with Shut Up and Kiss Me, her first album of all-new material since 1996. Wright independently released 2 albums in Canada in 2006: A Wright Christmas and Everything And More. In 2011, she released The Wright Songs: An Acoustic Evening With Michelle Wright, featuring recordings drawn from shows made during two years of touring in a trio setting.

Over the years, Wright has won two JUNO AWARDS, 15 Canadian Country Music Awards, 11 Big Country Awards, one MuchMusic Video Award and one SOCAN Award. She was also inducted into the Canadian Country Music Association Hall of Fame in 2011. That recognition, combined with 25 top-10 hits (including 7 that reached number one) and combined Canadian and American record sales of almost 2 million, have made her one of Canada's biggest country music stars ever.