[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_keith_urban_5141_79.jpg]]

Keith Lionel Urban (born 26 October 1967) is a New Zealand-born Australian country artist, but don't let his genre fool you.

He started out in obscurity in the 1990s in Australia, but just released one album before disappearing from the solo scene. For the next several years, Urban bounced around Nashville and got several minor parts. He formed a band called The Ranch in 1996. They released one album and two singles, and disbanded in less than a year.

He went back out solo again in 1998, this time achieving success with his self-titled album for Capitol Records. Three of its singles made top 10, with one of those three ("But for the Grace of God", which he wrote with two members of Music/TheGoGos) going to #1, thus breaking a nearly three-year dry spell for the label. He returned in 2002 for his second album, ''Golden Road''. This one got more critical acclaim and won him his biggest hit "Somebody Like You". It broke several records for country music, including most weeks at number 1 on ''Radio & Records'', got him a fairly major hit at pop, and introduced him as a serious country artist.

The best was still yet to come for him though. He did go through some tough times with drug and alcohol abuse, going into rehab on several different occassions. In 2005 he released his third album, ''Be Here''. It scored him even more radio hits and really grabbed the attention of the critics this time. By the time he released 2006's ''Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy Thing'', he got the strongest critical response of his entire career yet. "Stupid Boy" scored him another Grammy.

He's been married to actress Creator/NicoleKidman since 2006 and currently has two children with her. He released an album in 2009, ''Defying Gravity'', which was critically panned for containing several mushy love songs, but its commercial success is undiminished. Then, his conquest for love songs was finally done right in 2010 with the release of ''Get Closer''. After charting with the cut "For You" from the soundtrack to ''Film/ActOfValor'' in 2012, he put out the NewSoundAlbum ''Fuse'' in late 2013. ''Ripcord'' followed in 2016, producing his longest-lasting #1 hit to date in "Blue Ain't Your Color".

In 2012, he was a coach on the first series of the Australian version of ''Series/TheVoice'', but will not be returning for season two after accepting an offer to join the judging panel for season 12 of ''Series/AmericanIdol''.

Don't mistake him for most country artists. He's got qualities about him that make him country, but he's definitely not like his contemporaries. Even if he does play a six-string banjo (or "ganjo").
----
!!Discography
* ''Keith Urban'' (1991)
* ''The Ranch'' (1997, re-issued in 2004 as ''Keith Urban in The Ranch'')
* ''Keith Urban'' (1999)
* ''Golden Road'' (2002)
* ''Be Here'' (2004)
* ''Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy Thing'' (2006)
* ''Defying Gravity'' (2009)
* ''Get Closer'' (2010)
* ''Fuse'' (2013)
* ''Ripcord'' (2016)
* ''Graffiti U'' (2018)
* ''The Speed of Now Part 1'' (2020)

----
!!Tropes present in his work:

* AcCENTUponTheWrongSylLABle: "But for the Grace of God" has "Hea-''ven'' only knows that I've been blessed..."
* AlbumTitleDrop: ''Defying Gravity'' is named for a line in "If I Could Ever Love."
* AllLowercaseLetters: For his first solo album on Capitol, he spelled his name this way. He changed to normal capitalization from ''Golden Road'' onward.
* AuthorCatchPhrase: Many of his songs have references to the sun shining, driving in a car, and/or listening to the radio.
* BrokenWinLossStreak: For 18 years, his American debut single "It's a Love Thing" would be his only single to miss the Top Ten on the country charts. After ''37 consecutive Top Ten hits'', "Female" broke the streak in early 2018 by peaking at #11 and #12 on the Country Songs and Country Airplay charts respectively.
** In 2019, "Never Comin' Down" not only matched the #18 peak of "It's a Love Thing" on the country charts, but it became his first single since that song to fail to chart on the Hot 100 entirely (not even charting on the Bubbling Under like "It's a Love Thing" did).
* CallAndResponseSong: His duet with Music/CarrieUnderwood on "The Fighter":
-->'''Carrie''': What if I fall?\\
'''Keith''': I won't let you fall\\
'''Carrie''': What if I cry?\\
'''Keith''': I'll never make you cry\\
'''Carrie''': And if I get scared\\
'''Keith''': I'll hold you tighter / When they're tryin' to get to you, baby, I'll be the fighter
* TheCoverChangesTheMeaning: The original version of "Stupid Boy" by Sarah Buxton can be interpreted as an outsider observing an abusive relationship. His version of the song adds a verse, turning it into a song about a man expressing remorse over driving his lover away.

* EarlyBirdCameo: He had a pretty decent résumé before his debut single, including:
** 1991: Sang backing vocals on Music/{{INXS}}' live album ''Live Baby Live''
** 1993: A cameo in Music/AlanJackson's music video for "Mercury Blues"
** 1995: Co-wrote "Jesus Gets Jealous of Santa Claus" on Music/TobyKeith's ''Christmas to Christmas'', and "That Was Him (This Is Now)" by 4 Runner
** 1996: Played guitar on Paul Jefferson's debut, and covered "Dance On" on a Hank Marvin & the Shadows tribute album.
** 1996-98: Backed Australian country singer Slim Dusty on two albums.
** 1997: Co-wrote "Tangled Up in Love" on the Raybon Brothers' only album (this song was later recorded by The Ranch)
** 1998: Played guitar on Music/GarthBrooks' ''Double Live''
** 1998-99: Guest appearances on two Charlie Daniels Band albums.
** 1999: Played on "If You Try to Save This Marriage Again" on Creator/TimWilson's ''Gettin' My Mind Right'' album, backed Julie Reeves on two songs from her only album
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:
** The songs in The Ranch were largely more mainstream and subdued. "Just Some Love" in particular has a fiddle solo, which sounds particularly strange in contrast to his later works.
** His 1999 SelfTitledAlbum has a more subdued sound too. "Your Everything" and "But for the Grace of God" in particular are much softer sounding ballads, with considerably more fiddle and steel guitar compared to his usual pop-rock guitar pyrotechnics. Even the upbeat material such as "It's a Love Thing" and "Where the Blacktop Ends" is considerably twawngier and countrier (even after the later was [[RearrangeTheSong completely re-recorded for the radio edit]]). He also wasn't yet playing the ganjo, which made its first appearance on "Somebody Like You". Most of the mellower sound was due to the album being produced by Matt Rollings instead of Dann Huff. The album also features him spelling his name in AllLowercaseLetters, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and his hair is shorter]].
* EverythingIsAnInstrument: He plays a cardboard box on "Somebody Like You".
* EverythingsLouderWithBagpipes: "I Told You So" features Uilleann pipes.
* TheFourChordsOfPop: "Long Hot Summer" uses i-VI-III-VII on the verses.
* HappyFlashback: "Somewhere in My Car":
-->But in my mind we're somewhere in my car\\
And it's raining hard on the streetlight glow\\
You got your lips on mine, it's gasoline on fire\\
I never will forget, you grabbed my shirt and pulled it over my head\\
And your fingertips slide up and down my back\\
Breathin' hard, steamin' up the glass\\
I'd give anything if I could bring you back home
* HeavyMeta: "Put You in a Song", a song about the love song he wants to write about his lover.
** Perhaps given a ContinuityNod in the next single, "Without You", which features the lyric "And up until you came along / No one ever heard my song / Now it's climbing with a bullet."
* HiddenTrack: ''Golden Road'' features a hidden track called "One Chord Song".
* LeadSingerPlaysLeadGuitar: In addition to singing, he provides lead guitar on the vast majority of tracks.
* LikeAGodToMe: Inverted in "You're Not My God" about getting over drugs.
* LoveNostalgiaSong: "We Were Us", a duet with Music/MirandaLambert.
* LyricSwap: On "Once in a Lifetime", the final iteration of the chorus has different words. The original is "And don't fear it now, we're going all the way / That sun is shining on a brand new day / It's a long way down and it's a leap of faith / But I'm never givin' up / 'Cause I know we got a once in a lifetime love." The last time around, it becomes "Don't fear it now, I'll never let you go / When you're by my side, I know I've made it homeā€¦" The latter was cut out of the radio edit, and as a result, most lyric sites reflect only what is present in the radio edit.
* LyricalColdOpen: The radio edits of "I'm In" and "Somewhere in My Car", although the album versions have instrumental openers (acoustic guitar and ganjo, respectively). Also played straight with "Blue Ain't Your Color".
* LyricalTic: He tends to do a sort of "mmm" sound a lot. He also tends to utter "Yes, I did", "Yes, you did", or one of several other variants, after several lines. (Example: "You stole her every dream, and you crushed her plans/Yes, you did" in "Stupid Boy".)
* NewSoundAlbum:
** ''Love, Pain, & the whole crazy thing'' was a brief foray into a more bombastic pop sound, although some tracks like "Stupid Boy" were closer to his usual fare.
** ''Fuse'' and ''Ripcord'' both stand out for having several more producers trade off instead of just himself and Dann Huff (although Huff still does a few tracks on each). This results in an even ''more'' pop-influenced sound, which ended up being his default mode going forward. One would not expect a pre-''Fuse'' Keith Urban to be duetting with the likes of Julia Michaels or Music/{{Pink}}, or recording Music/EdSheeran co-writes.
* RearrangeTheSong: "Where the Blacktop Ends" was completely re-recorded for the single release. This re-recording was not commercially available until ''Greatest Hits: 18 Kids''.
* RecordProducer: From ''Golden Road'' until "For You" (from the soundtrack to the 2012 film ''Film/ActOfValor''), he has co-produced with Dann Huff. ''Fuse'', ''Ripcord'', and ''Graffiti U'' have a myriad of producers from track to track, Huff included.
* RereleaseTheSong: "You Look Good in My Shirt" was supposed to be the fifth single from his 2002 album ''Golden Road'', but the label instead chose to release "Days Go By" from a new album. Even so, a few stations played "Shirt" anyway, and it became extremely popular in concert, so he chose to re-record it for his 2008 album ''Greatest Hits: 19 Kids'' (itself a last-minute re-release of ''Greatest Hits: 18 Kids'').
* RewindGag: Occurs in the video for "Days Go By", where Keith appears to be walking toward the camera while everything else around him happens in reverse. This was achieved by having him move backwards, and then reversing the footage.
* {{Scatting}}: Done at the end of both versions of "You Look Good in My Shirt".
* SelfBackingVocalist: Most of his backing vocals are either him or Jerry Flowers, another former member of The Ranch.
* SexinessScore: "She's My 11" has this trope referenced in the very title, being about a girl so amazing she BrokeTheRatingScale.
-->She's my radio turned up to 11
* SexyShirtSwitch: The basis of "You Look Good in My Shirt", which provides the page quote.
* ShapedLikeItself: "The Fighter" has the line "'Cause your precious heart is a precious heart".
* ShoutOut: "John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16" is full of references ranging from Music/DonMcLean to Creator/ErnestHemingway to ''Series/WheelOfFortune''.
* SignatureStyle: Most of the songs that he writes are either a.) soft, passionate love ballads with restrained production, or b.) guitar-heavy up-tempos with a driving beat. Even most of the songs he didn't write fit one of those two styles; among those he ''did'' write, the very bombastic and poppy up-tempo "Once in a Lifetime" was one of his first departures from his usual style, while many of the singles from ''Fuse'' and ''Ripcord'' (such as "Cop Car" and "Wasted Time") have also taken him outside the box.
* SingingVoiceDissonance: No, he doesn't sing with an Australian accent at all. In fact, he has a pretty spot-on American country twang most of the time.
* ThisSongGoesOutToTVTropes: His song "Gemini" is all about his wife Creator/NicoleKidman (who is a Gemini, hence the title). She's reportedly somewhat embarrassed about it since he's gushing about her the whole song, including her being a "[[SexGoddess maniac in bed]]".
* UncommonTime: "Blue Ain't Your Color" is in 12/8.
----