Miranda Lambert

Miranda Lambert was born on November 10, 1983, in Lindale, Texas, a town 80 miles east of Dallas where Friday nights are devoted to high school football. Her father was a country guitarist who ran a detective agency during the week, in which both her parents worked. Her house had a welcoming open-door policy where friends always came to play and talk country. Miranda grew up to the sounds of Guy Clark, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Merle Haggard.

When she was 10, her father took her to see Garth Brooks in Dallas, a life-changing moment for her. It inspired her to enter a country talent contest, where she sang "Daddy's Hands" by Holly Dunn. At age 13, Miranda began going to Nashville's Fan Fair festival annually, collecting every piece of country memorabilia possible. Miranda's father thought it a bad omen when she hardly touched the guitar he gave her when she was 14. But it just wasn't her time yet. At 16, she entered the Tru-Value country talent contest and made an impression among the Texas judges. Miranda started performing in the Johnny High Country Music Review, the same show where LeAnn Rimes was discovered. It was around this time that Miranda started to discover her own country voice. At a Nashville music seminar, she was asked to record some pop-country demos. She hated all of them. So she decided to write her own material and took up guitar lessons with her old man.

She was nominated for "Best Female Country Vocal Performance" for "Kerosene" at the 2007 Grammy awards. Although she did not come away with the statue, Lambert recently stated that she is just honored to be recognized by people outside of the country music industry.