She’s written songs for film, TV, and for other artists, spanning multiple genres. Chely made history by being the first country music star to publicly come out as gay, which she wrote about in her 2010 memoir Like Me, published by Random House. Named “Top New Female Vocalist” by The Academy of Country Music, Chely Wright rose to fame as a commercial country singer in the ’90s, and has since released 9 studio albums and charted more than 15 singles on the Billboard charts, including “Shut Up and Drive,” “Single White Female,” and “The Bumper of My S.U.V.” In 2010, Wright released her eighth album, Lifted Off the Groundproduced by Rodney Crowell, revealing a dramatic artistic transformation and emerging as a singer-songwriter of the first order. June 2021 Focus on the Future: Honoring WBE Stars & Top CorporationsĬhely Wright Unispace Chief Diversity Officer.Top Corporations for Women’s Business Enterprises.On May 4, 2010, Wright released both her memoir of being a closeted lesbian, Like Me, and her first album of new songs since 2005, "Lifted Off the Ground.
In television appearances and an autobiography, she cited among her reasons for publicizing her homosexuality a concern with bullying and hate crimes toward gays, particularly gay teenagers, and the damage to her life caused by "lying and hiding".Īs a songwriter she has written songs that have been recorded by Brad Paisley, Richard Marx, Indigo Girls, Mindy Smith and Clay Walker, among them Walker's top ten hit, "I Can't Sleep" that won her a BMI award. As of May 2010, Wright's previous eight albums had sold over 1,000,000 copies in the United States.
Overall, Wright has released seven studio albums on various labels, and has charted more than fifteen singles on the country charts. Two years later, her fourth album yielded her first number one single, the title track, "Single White Female". Wright's first Top 40 country hit came in 1997 with "Shut Up and Drive".
On the strength of her debut album in 1994, the Academy of Country Music named her Top New Female Vocalist in 1995.
She tells her story of being a closeted lesbian in her memoir Like Me: Confessions of a Heartland Country Singer. In May 2010, she became the first major country music performer to publicly come out as gay. Country music star Chely Wright is a singer, songwriter, author and gay rights activist.
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