Leann Rimes’ song Blue (which was a version of Bill Mack’s song of the same name), released in 1996, made her a star at the age of 13 and broke Tanya Tucker record as the youngest country music star in 1972.
Biography (Age)
Rimes was born on August 28, 1982, in Jackson, Mississippi, as Margaret LeAnn Rimes, and she is the only child of her parents (Wilbur Rimes and Belinda Butler). She was just six years old when her parents moved to Texas.
LeAnn had always shown an interest in the arts, and so her parents enrolled her in singing and dancing lessons at a very early age, at five, when she was already performing in local talent shows. Her first major musical theater performance was a Christmas carol staged by a production from Dallas, Texas.
After participating in a television competition show Star Search by Alfred Masini, hosted by Ed McMahon, Rimes decided to settle down with country music. She made an increased appearance in Johnnie High’s Country Music Revue, which gained so much popularity and gave charming Rimes the platform and publicity she needed at the time.
When Rimes was nine years old, she toured the nation with her father and performed in several states. Her father eventually signed her to the independent label Nor Va Jak and she began recording. Between 1991 and 1996 she released three different albums
She was brought into the spotlight by Dallas disc jockey and promoter Bill Mack, who was impressed by her vocal abilities and made several attempts to bring her up to mainstream levels, which he did by letting her sing Blue, an album he wanted to make with Patsy Cline before her untimely death.
Leann Rimes became famous with the release of Blue in 1996, selling 123,000 copies in its first week, four million copies in the US and a total of eight million copies worldwide, making it the highest ever album sold in SoundScan’s history at the time.
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The album was number 1 on the top country album and number 3 on the poster 200, and with the success of the album came several notable awards for Rimes, including a Grammy, for Best New Artist and Best Woman’s Country Vocal Performance, the Horizon Award for Best New Artist of the Year, and the youngest person to be nominated at that time to win a Country Music Association award.
From 1997 to early 2000 Rimes worked on and released several other albums. During this time she also made the transition from country music to pop. After almost ten years of experimenting with pop music, she returned to country music in 2005 with the release of her seventh studio album This Woman.
The album was a huge success, becoming her best-selling album in over five years, selling more than 100,000 copies in the first week after its release. It reached #3 on Billboard 200 and #2 on the top country album charts.
The album earned Rimes another Grammy Award nomination for best female country vocal performance and a nomination for the American Music Award as a favorite country artist.
Her last single, The Story, was released in 2016; it came from her studio album Remnants, first released by her new label RCA UK. A track from the album Love Is Love, is used in the movie Logan Lucky.
LeAnn Rimes’ Husband, Family
Rimes was married twice. Her first marriage was to Dean Sheremet, a background dancer whom she met in 2001 while hosting the Academy of Country Music Awards. The two fell in love and walked down the aisle the following year.
Their marriage did not last long, as the couple separated in September 2009 and finally divorced in June 2010.
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The reason for their divorce was their extramarital affair with actor Eddie Cibrian, whose wife also filed for divorce on the grounds of adultery.
Rimes and Cibrian became engaged in December 2010 and got married on April 22, 2011, in front of some friends and family members in a private home in California.
Net Worth
LeAnn Rimes has an estimated net worth of $38 million. In 2000, Rimes sued her father and former manager, Lyle Walker, for defrauding her of $7 million in five years. After proper investigation, it was discovered that men had actually defrauded her of $8 million, not $7 million.
Rimes and her father finally agreed in 2002 under undisclosed terms.
