Leann Rimes’ song Blue (which was a version of the Bill Mack song with the same title), released in 1996 made her a star at age 13, breaking Tanya Tucker’s 1972 record of the youngest country music star.
LeAnn Rimes Biography (Age)
Rimes was born August 28, 1982, in Jackson, Mississippi as Margaret LeAnn Rimes and she is the only child her parents (Wilbur Rimes and Belinda Butler). She was just six years old when her parents moved to Texas.
LeAnn had always shown interest in the Arts, so, her parents enrolled her in vocal and dance classes, quite early that by the age of five, she was already performing in local talent shows. Her first major musical theatre performance was in a Christmas carol which was put up by a Dallas Texas production.
After participating in a Television competition show Star Search created by Alfred Masini and hosted by Ed McMahon, Rimes decided to settle with country music. She appeared severally on Johnnie High’s Country Music Revue, which gained so much popularity and gave charming Rimes the platform and publicity she needed at the time.
By the time Rimes was nine years old, she had toured around the nation with her father, performing in several states. Her father eventually signed her under the independent label Nor Va Jak and she began recording. Between 1991 and 1996, she released three different albums
She was brought into the limelight by Dallas disc jockey and promoter Bill Mack, who was impressed by her vocal ability and made several attempts to bring her to a mainstream level and he succeeded by making her sing Blue, an album he wanted to do with Patsy Cline before her untimely death.
With the release of Blue in 1996 came Leann Rimes’ fame as the album sold 123,000 copies in its first week, four million copies in the U.S and a total of eight million copies worldwide and became the highest figure to have ever been sold in the history of SoundScan at that time.
The album was at #1 on the Top Country Album and #3 on the billboard 200. With the success of the album came several notable awards for Rimes which included a Grammy, for Best New Artist and Best Female Country Vocal Performance, Horizon Award for Best New Artist Of The Year, she also became the youngest person at the time to be nominated and win a Country Music Association award.
From 1997 to early 2000, Rimes worked on and released several other albums. This period also saw her transition from country music to pop. After experimenting with pop music for almost ten years, she returned to country music in 2005 with the release of her seventh studio album called This Woman.
The album was a huge success, as it became her best-selling album in over five years, selling more than 100,000 copies within the first week of its release. It reached #3 on the Billboard 200 and No. 2 on the Top Country Albums chart.
The album earned Rimes another Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Country Vocal Performance and an American Music Award nomination for Favorite Female Country Artist.
Her latest single The Story came in 2016; it was from her studio album Remnants which was first released by her new label RCA UK. A track from the album Love Is Love Is Love, is used in the film Logan Lucky.
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 investigations were made, it was discovered that men had actually defrauded her of $8 million and not $7 million.
Rimes and her father finally settled in 2002 on undisclosed terms.
LeAnn Rimes’ Husband, Family
Rimes has been married twice. Her first marriage was to Dean Sheremet, a backup dancer whom she met while hosting the 2001 Academy of Country Music Awards. The two fell in love and walked down the aisle the following year.
Their marriage didn’t last long as the couple separated in September 2009 and finally divorced in June 2010.
The reason for their divorce was as a result of her extra-marital affair with actor Eddie Cibrian, whose wife also filed for a divorce on grounds of adultery.
Rimes and Cibrian got engaged in December 2010 and wedded on April 22, 2011, at a private home in California, before a few friends and family members.
