Audrey Faith McGraw (née Perry; born September 21, 1967), better known as Faith Hill, is a Country Music singer known both for her own music and her longterm marriage to Tim McGraw. Hill debuted in 1993 with the song "Wild One" from her album Take Me as I Am and remained a regular presence on the country music charts throughout the 1990s and into the early 2000s. Her biggest hits came in the latter half of the 1990s, including the McGraw duet "It's Your Love", as well as "This Kiss", "Breathe", and "The Way You Love Me", all of which crossed over to pop radio.
After a more pop and AC oriented crossover album, Faith returned to form in 2005 with Fireflies, which returned her to her more traditional country-pop sound. This album accounted for her last Number One hit in "Mississippi Girl" (co-written by John Rich of Big & Rich). She's been pretty much quiet after a couple flops from a Greatest Hits Album and a stray Christmas album, but finally returned in 2011 with the dud single "Come Home" (a OneRepublic cover). After that flopped, she tried again with "American Heart" in late 2012. She finally signed a joint deal with Tim, and the two released a duet album in 2017.
From 2007-2012 she provided the musical opening for NBC's Sunday Night Football telecasts. She starred in 1883 as Margaret Dutton.
Discography:
- Take Me as I Am (1993)
- It Matters to Me (1995)
- Faith (1998)
- Breathe (1999)
- Cry (2002)
- Fireflies (2005)
- Joy to the World (2008)
- The Rest of Our Life (duets album with Tim McGraw) (2017)
Tropes present:
- Assumed Win: The 2006 Country Music Awards saw Faith Hill and Carrie Underwood both nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year. As the nominations were being announced, a camera was trained on all five finalists, including Hill and Underwood. Then, as Underwood was announced the winner, Hill smiled and raised her arms, then apparently screamed "What?" and stormed away. All of this was caught on live television just before the nominee camera shots were pulled away. Faith Hill and her management insisted the act was a joke, but left many unconvinced.
- Auto-Tune: The backing vocals on the pop remix of "The Way You Love Me".
- Christmas Songs: "Where Are You, Christmas?" from the 2000 How the Grinch Stole Christmas soundtrack. The song was written by James Horner and Will Jennings, with Mariah Carey (who recorded the unreleased original version) providing additional lyrics.
- Doo-Wop Progression: The first half of the verses to "I Can't Do That Anymore".
- Dual-Meaning Chorus: "You Can't Lose Me". The first verse refers to a mother consoling a daughter for losing a race; the second refers to the daughter consoling the mom after moving out on her own.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Before her debut single, she sang backing vocals for Gary Morris, at whose publishing company she worked in the late '80s.
- Greatest Hits Album: The Hits.
- Lyrical Shoehorn: The first stanza of "The Way You Love Me": "If I could grant you one wish / I wish you could see the way you kiss." So she'll grant him a wish, but she gets to pick it for him. Yeah, that makes sense. Also, the next two lines are heavily laden with "ooh"s just to make the meter fit.
- The Meaning of Life: "The Secret of Life" has a couple of guys at a bar debating what the secret to a good life is, whether it's found in small pleasures ("a good cup of coffee") or actions ("keep your eye on the ball"), while lamenting that the advice is often vague ("ad on TV says 'just do it'/Hell if I know what that means") and contradictory ("try not to hurry/but don't wait, don't wait") The bartender interjects to tell them there is no secret, and they should just live it, because "you don't get your money back."
- Ms. Fanservice: In her Sunday Night Football intros.
- New Sound Album: Cry completed the transition from country-pop to outright pop that began in Breathe. Although this sound won her a Grammy for the title track and gave her a third number one on the AC charts, the rest of the album did very little at country or pop radio ("Cry" zoomed to #12 then dropped like a rock), and led to many fans accusing her of selling out to the pop base. She pretty much returned to her mid-1990s sound with Fireflies in 2005.
- Pretty in Mink: Wore a couple fur wraps for some videos, such as "There You'll Be" and "The Way You Love Me".
- Rearrange the Song: "You Can't Lose Me" had the vocal track re-recorded for the radio edit and music video.
- Re-Cut: Faith was re-released internationally as Love Will Always Win, with a re-arranged track list and a title track exclusive to that version.
- The Runner-Up Takes It All: "Breathe" only got to #2 on the Hot 100 but was the top pop hit of 2000 per the Billboard Year-End charts due to its longevity.
- Stepford Smiler: In terms of the page image for the trope; she played one of The Stepford Wives. Otherwise, averted.
- Surreal Music Video: "This Kiss", which has her swinging from cherries, riding rockets, and playing with oversized butterflies.
- Truck Driver's Gear Change: The verses of "The Way You Love Me" are in C. It goes up to D for most of the chorus, and then up again to E for the last line of the chorus.
- Viva Las Vegas!: "Let's Go to Vegas" has her persuading a lover to run off and get married in Las Vegas. The Trope Namer is name-dropped in the bridge.
- Word Salad Lyrics: "Red Umbrella". On one blog, the writers tried to justify it as being like a Beatles song, but judge for yourself:You can wear your sorrow like an old raincoatYou can save your tears in a bottle made of goldBut the glitter on the sidewalk always shinesYeah, even God needs to cry sometimes
