Lee Ann Womack was born and raised in Jacksonville, Texas.  She attended Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, studying music commerce.  She interned at the A & R department at MCA Records.  She left the school a year before graduation.  She spent a few years as a young wife and mother, then started performing in 1995.

Lee Ann Womack

I don't sing country music because I'm not capable of singing other kinds of music; I sing it because I think it's the most beautiful kind of music there is.

Preparing for the Future

Lee Ann Womack was born and raised in Jacksonville, Texas.  She attended Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, studying music commerce.  She interned at the A & R department at MCA Records.  She left the school a year before graduation.  She spent a few years as a young wife and mother, then started performing in 1995.

Representatives from Tree Publishing were impressed with what the heard at her performances. They offered her a contract.  She wrote songs for other country artists, like Ricky Skaggs and Brian Anderson.  She auditioned for MCA Records and was awarded a recording contract in 1996.  In 1997, she released her debut album, Lee Ann Womack.

Recording Years

With singles, The Fool and You've Got to Talk to Me both landing at #2 on the country charts, her debut album ultimately certified platinum and reached #9 on the Billboard country chart.  Her second album, Some Things I Know, was released in 1998, and featured guest artists, including Vince Gill, Joe Diffie, and Ricky Skaggs.  It rose only as high as #20 on the country charts.

Her third album, I Hope You Dance, released in 2000, spawned Womack's only #1 hit, which was the title track.  The song and the album hit #1 on the country charts and #14 on the pop chart.  Nielsen Soundscan reports that the single was in the top 10 most played songs of the decade (2000-2009), in terms of on line streaming and mp3 downloads.  She released the  well-received traditional country album, entitled There's More Where That Came From in 2005.  The album won the Country Music Association's Album of the Year.

Here and Now

Lee Ann Womack released her most recent album, Call Me Crazy, in 2008.  The album featured appearances from George Strait and Keith Urban.  In 2009, she released the single, There is God, a lead-in for the album due out later in 2010.  The album peaked at #4 on the country charts.   She also released a greatest hits compilation album in 2004 and a Christmas album, entitled The Season for Romance, in 2002.  

During the course of her career to date, Womack has won seven Country Music Association awards, five Academy of Country Music awards, one British Country Music award, and two Grammy awards.  In 2001, Billboard named her single, I Hope You Dance, Adult Contemporary Song of the Year.  

Did you know . . .

1. In December, 2000, Lee Ann Womack performed I Hope You Dance at the annual Nobel Peace Prize concert.

2. Before releasing her first album, MCA Records encouraged her to choose a stage name so that audiences would not confuse her with Leeann Rimes.  She opted not to do so, because she wished to use her own name.

3. Lee Ann's ex-husband, Jason Sellers, and her daughter, Aubrie, sing back-up vocals on I Hope You Dance.

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