Miranda Leigh Lambert (born November 10, 1983) is an American country music singer and songwriter. Outside of her solo career, she is a member of the Pistol Annies alongside Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley. Lambert has been honored by the Grammy Awards, the Academy of Country Music Awards, and the Country Music Association Awards.

Lambert's debut album Kerosene (2005) was certified Platinum in the United States, and produced the singles "Me and Charlie Talking", "Bring Me Down", "Kerosene", and "New Strings". All four singles reached the top 40 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs. Her second album, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, was released in early 2007. Three of its singles-"Famous in a Small Town", "Gunpowder & Lead", and "More Like Her")-peaked within the top 20 on the country songs chart, with "Gunpowder & Lead" becoming her first top 10 entry in July 2008. Her third album, Revolution, was released in September 2009. Two of its songs-"The House That Built Me" and "Heart Like Mine"-topped the Hot Country Songs chart.

2011's Four the Record, included the singles "Baggage Claim", "Over You", "Fastest Girl in Town", "Mama's Broken Heart", and "All Kinds of Kinds". Lambert released her fifth album, "Platinum", in 2014. The record won the Grammy Award for Best Country Album, and the album's lead single "Automatic" reached top 5 on the Country charts. Her sixth studio album, The Weight of These Wings, was released on November 18, 2016.

From 2011 to 2015, Lambert was married to singer Blake Shelton.

Early life

Miranda Leigh Lambert was born November 10, 1983, in Longview, Texas, and was raised in Lindale, Texas. She was named after her great-grandmother, Lucy Miranda. Her father, Rick Lambert, was a police officer who played in a country-rock group called Contraband in the 1970s. He later became a private investigator in partnership with Miranda's mother, Beverly. She has English, Irish and Native American ancestry.

While still in high school, Lambert made her professional singing debut with "The Texas Pride Band". She also fronted the house band at the Reo Palm Isle in Longview, Texas, a long-running venue that had presented legends such as Elvis Presley and Willie Nelson, and the place where Brooks & Dunn started out as the house band.

Music career

2000-2003: Career beginnings

At 16, Lambert appeared on the Johnnie High Country Music Revue in Arlington, Texas, the same talent show that had helped launch the career of LeAnn Rimes. Lambert then acquired a recording session in Nashville, Tennessee, but left the studio after she became frustrated with the "pop" type of music presented to her. She went back to Texas in 2000 and asked her dad to teach her how to play guitar, so she could write her own songs.

In 2002, Dusty Meador hired Miranda to perform at Tye Phelps' country music restaurant and venue "Love And War in Texas". Miranda continued to perform around the Texas Music Scene opening for Cooder Graw, Kevin Fowler and Jack Ingram. In 2003 she auditioned for the talent competition Nashville Star, where she earned a third-place finish behind Buddy Jewell and John Arthur Martinez. During her 9-week stay on Nashville Star Miranda caught the attention of the show's judge and Sony Record executive, Tracy Gershon, who later convinced the label to sign her to their label.

2004-2008: Kerosene and Crazy Ex- Girlfriend

On September 15, 2003, she signed with Epic Records. Her debut single, "Me and Charlie Talking", co-written by her father and Heather Little, was released in summer of 2004 as the lead single to her debut album. Titled Kerosene, Lambert's first album comprised 12 songs, 11 of which she wrote or co-wrote. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard Top Country Albums charts, and eventually gained a Platinum certification by the RIAA for shipments of over one million copies, selling more than 930,000 copies up to July 2008. Overall, the album produced four Top 40 singles on the Billboard country charts, including the title track which was a Top 20 hit. Lambert also toured with Keith Urban and George Strait in early 2006. In 2007, she toured with Dierks Bentley and Toby Keith.

Lambert's second album, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, was released on May 9, 2007. She wrote eight of the album's 11 tracks, including its four singles. Much of the track "Gunpowder & Lead," the album's third single and her highest-charting single, was written while she was taking a concealed handgun class in her home town. Fady Joudah of The New Yorker said the album proved "she has talent and charisma on a par with Dolly Parton, another blond beauty who was once underestimated."

In 2005, at the 40th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas, Lambert won the Cover Girl "Fresh Face of Country Music Award". She was also nominated for the Country Music Association's Horizon Award in 2005; in 2007, Lambert also received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Country Vocal Performance for her single "Kerosene". She also won the Top New Female Vocalist award at the 2007 ACM (Academy of Country Music) Awards. At the 2008 ACM (Academy of Country Music) Awards, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend won Album of the Year.

2009-2011: Revolution

Lambert released her third album, Revolution, on September 29, 2009. She co-wrote 11 of the album's 15 tracks; the album also includes co-writes from Dave Haywood and Charles Kelley of Lady Antebellum and Blake Shelton.

Revolution received significant critical praise on its release. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 85, based on 11 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim". Rolling Stone magazine praised the album saying, "Lambert remains country's most refreshing act, and not just because she makes firearms seem like a matter-of-fact female accessory." Entertainment Weekly said, "She's found stylistic shades of songwriters twice her age..." and the album is "...a portrait of an artist in full possession of her powers, and the best mainstream-country album so far this year." Boston Globe commented that "Revolution"?"? is the sound of Miranda Lambert coming into her own." Slant magazine praised the album saying, "Miranda Lambert expands on her fascinating, fully realized artistic persona ..."

Lambert debuted her new single, "Dead Flowers", at the 44th annual Academy of Country Music Awards on April 5, 2009. It was released on May 4, 2009, and was a minor Top 40 hit on the charts. The album's second single, "White Liar", was released on August 17, 2009, and debuted at No. 50 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. In February 2010, "White Liar" became Lambert's first Top Five hit, reaching a peak of No. 2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. "The House That Built Me," the album's third single, was released on March 8, 2010 and became a No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. It stayed there for four weeks, and received platinum certification from the RIAA on July 8, 2010. "Only Prettier" followed as the album's fourth single in July 2010 and its accompanying music video went viral. The music video for "Only Prettier" featured cameo appearances by fellow country artists Kellie Pickler, Laura Bell Bundy, and Hillary Scott of Lady Antebellum. In December 2010, "Only Prettier" reached a peak of number 12 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, giving Lambert her seventh Top 20 hit. "Heart Like Mine" was released in January 2011 as the fifth and final single from Revolution. It became Lambert's second Number One hit on the country charts for the chart dated May 28, 2011.

In promotion of Revolution, Lambert launched a headlining tour; Roadside Bars & Pink Guitars in March 2010, with stops in 22 cities and a performance at the Bonnaroo Music Festival.

On September 1, 2010, it was announced that Lambert had received a record-setting 9 CMA award nominations. She performed at the 44th Annual Country Music Association Awards on November 10, 2010. She won the CMA Award for Female Vocalist of the Year, and her Revolution won Album of the Year. Lambert and Sheryl Crow performed "Coal Miner's Daughter" as a tribute to country legend Loretta Lynn, who also entered the stage to join them and finished the song with Crow and Lambert as backup. Later that night, Lynn presented the Female Vocalist of the Year CMA award to Lambert. On February 13, 2011, Lambert won a Grammy Award in the Best Female Country Vocal Performance category for "The House That Built Me."

2011-2013: Four the Record and the Pistol Annies

Lambert's fourth studio album, Four the Record, was released on November 1, 2011; her first album for RCA Nashville, after Sony Music Nashville announced a corporate restructuring. Four the Record produced five singles: "Baggage Claim", "Over You", "Fastest Girl in Town", "Mama's Broken Heart", and "All Kinds of Kinds". "Over You", which Lambert and Shelton co-wrote, reached number 1 in early 2012. Late in 2012, Lambert appeared on Shelton's Christmas album Cheers, It's Christmas, to which she contributed guest vocals on a version of "Jingle Bell Rock". Lambert recorded a song for The Hunger Games soundtrack (The Hunger Games: Songs from District 12 and Beyond), called "Run Daddy Run" featuring The Pistol Annies. The soundtrack was released on March 20, 2012. On October 23, 2012, Lambert and Dierks Bentley announced the co-headlined 33-show Locked & Reloaded Tour, beginning on January 17, 2013.

In 2012, Lambert made her acting debut on NBC's long-running legal drama, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in an episode titled "Father's Shadow". Lambert later told CMT News she was a big fan of the show: "I never wanted to act. I still don"?t. I don"?t want to be an actress. I just wanted to be on that show mainly so I could be a groupie [for their autographs]."

On April 4, 2011, during the taping of the Academy of Country Music's 'Girls' Night Out' television special in Las Vegas, Lambert debuted her new project, girl group Pistol Annies. The group consists of Lambert, Ashley Monroe, and Angaleena Presley. They released their single, "Hell on Heels," in May 2011, and released their debut album, Hell on Heels, on August 23, 2011, which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's country chart. Sasha Frere-Jones of The New Yorker said the trio "is good enough to recall those transcendent moments of vocal harmony the Dixie Chicks used to hit every few months." A second Pistol Annies album, Annie Up, was released in May 2013. This album produced the group's first country chart entry with "Hush Hush". The Pistol Annies are also one of many acts featured on Blake Shelton's 2013 single "Boys 'Round Here", which went to number 1 on Country Airplay. They had previously accompanied Shelton on a rendition of "Blue Christmas" on Cheers, It's Christmas.

2014-2015: Platinum

"Automatic," the lead single from Lambert's fifth studio album, Platinum, was released on February 5, 2014, to praise from music critics. The album, containing 16 songs, was released on June 3, 2014. The album's second single, "Somethin' Bad", is a duet with Carrie Underwood and was debuted on the 2014 Billboard Music Awards on May 18. The album's third single, "Little Red Wagon", was released to country radio on January 12, 2015. The album's fourth single, "Smokin' and Drinkin'" released to country radio on June 22, 2015.

2016-present: The Weight of These Wings

In March 2016, Lambert made her first ever performances outside of the US and Canada as one of the headliners of C2C: Country to Country, Europe's biggest country music festival, which saw Lambert play in England, Scotland and Ireland alongside Dwight Yoakam, Thomas Rhett and Ashley Monroe. On July 18, 2016, Lambert released "Vice" to country radio and digital outlets. Written by Lambert, Shane McAnally and Josh Osborne, it was her first song released since Platinum. In September, Lambert announced her sixth studio album, The Weight of These Wings, which was released on November 18, 2016. She was selected as one of 30 artists to perform on Forever Country, a mash-up track of "Take Me Home, Country Roads", "On the Road Again" and "I Will Always Love You" which celebrates 50 years of the CMA Awards. Shortly after the release of The Weight of These Wings, the Highway Vagabond Tour was announced and began on January 24, 2017. These will be Lambert's first live shows since she was put on mandatory vocal rest and was forced to cancel her Keeper of the Flame Tour in 2016. This tour will encompass the USA, Canada and will be her first solo shows in Europe, seeing her return to England, Ireland, Scotland and, for the first time, the Netherlands.

Endorsements

In 2009, Lambert and two other singers, became the new faces of Cotton Inc."?s revived "The Touch, The Feel of Cotton"? campaign. She has appeared in ads to promote cotton, and the website features a free download of the full version of her song, "Fabric of My Life."

In December 2014, Lambert"?s line of shoes and boots were released at DSW. In November 2014, Lambert"?s partnership with Chrysler's Ram trucks was announced. Under the partnership, Ram gave Lambert a customized 1500 Laramie Longhorn which she auctioned off, with proceeds going to Lambert"?s Muttnation Foundation which betters the lives for shelter animals. Ram and Lambert will continue to work with each other in 2015.

Personal life

In 2006, Lambert began dating fellow country singer Blake Shelton. They became engaged in May 2010 and were married on May 14, 2011 at the Don Strange Ranch in Boerne, Texas. On July 20, 2015, the couple announced that they were divorcing after four years of marriage.

In December 2015, it was confirmed that Lambert was dating R&B singer Anderson East; they met at Nashville's Live on the Green Music Festival in September of that year.

In 2016, Lambert paid $3.4 million for a 400-plus acre farm, with three residences, near Primm Springs, Tennessee. Following her divorce, Lambert also retained ownership of a suburban mansion in Nashville, Tennessee, purchased in 2013 for $2.258 million.

Discography

Template:Main article

Studio Albums

• Kerosene (2005)
• Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (2007)
• Revolution (2009)
• Four the Record (2011)
• Platinum (2014)
• The Weight of These Wings (2016)

Independent Albums

• Miranda Lambert (2001)

Awards

Template:Main article In April 2017 Lambert won the ACM Award for Female Vocalist of the Year for the eighth consecutive year, surpassing Reba McEntire as the most awarded in the category. In November 2015 she became the first woman to have won the Country Music Association Awards' Album of the Year twice. She has won two Grammy Awards out of twelve nominations.

Tours

Headlining

• Roadside Bars & Pink Guitars Tour (2010)
• CMT On Tour: Miranda Lambert Revolution (2010)
• Miranda Lambert: Revolution Tour (2011)
• On Fire Tour (2012)
• Platinum Tour (2014-16)
  • Roadside Bars & Pink Guitars Tour (2015)
• Keeper of the Flame Tour (2016)
• Highway Vagabond Tour (2017)

Co-headlining

• Locked and Loaded Tour with Dierks Bentley (2007)
• Miranda Lambert & Blake Shelton Co-Headlining Tour (2008)
• Locked and Reloaded Tour with Dierks Bentley (2013)
• C2C: Country to Country with Carrie Underwood and Eric Church (2016)

Opening

• Free and Easy Summer Tour with Dierks Bentley (2006)
• Hookin' Up and Hangin' Out Tour with Toby Keith (2007)
• George Strait 2008 Arena Tour (2008)
• Sun City Carnival Tour with Kenny Chesney (2009)
• American Saturday Night Tour with Brad Paisley (2010)
• Virtual Reality Tour with Brad Paisley at Wrigley Field June 9 (2012)
• Night Train Tour with Jason Aldean at Fenway Park July 12 & 13 (2013)
• Spread the Love Tour with Kenny Chesney (2016)

Band

Lambert's road band consists of the following:

• Aden Bubeck - bass guitar, double bass
• Spencer Cullum Jr. - pedal steel, mandolin, banjo
• Gwen Sebastian - backing vocals
• Danny Mitchell - keyboard
• Chris Kline - keyboard, harmonica, percussion
• Alex Weeden - lead guitar
• Boo Massey - lead guitar
• Scotty Wray - lead guitar, rhythm guitar
• Keith Zebroski - drums

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2007	CMT Cross Country	Herself	(with Jack Ingram)
2011	The Voice	Herself (Advisor)	Season 1 Performance Finale with Dia Frampton Season 2 Battle Advisor From Team Blake Season 6 Battle Advisor From Team Shakira
2012	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Lacey Ford	Episode: "Father's Shadow"

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