Michelle Wright (born July 1, 1961) is a Canadian country music artist. She won the Canadian Country Music Association's Fans' Choice Award twice (1993 and 1995). In 2011, Wright was inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame.
Wright's primary success has been in her native Canada, where she has charted more than twenty-five singles, including six Number One hits: "Take It Like a Man", "One Time Around", "Guitar Talk", "One Good Man", "Nobody's Girl" and "Crank My Tractor". She also had chart success in the United States in the 1990s, landing in the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts with "Take It Like a Man" at No. 10, "He Would Be Sixteen" at No. 31 and "New Kind of Love" at No. 32.
Career
Early life
Michelle Wright was born on July 1, 1961, in Chatham, Ontario. Wright grew up in the small nearby town of Merlin where her parents were both local music performers. By 1980, when Wright was in college studying counseling for the mentally disadvantaged, she joined a local band with whom she performed until 1983.
That year Wright started her own band. She performed with her own band until 1988.
1990–1993: Breakthrough success
In April 1990, Wright's first American single, "New Kind of Love", was issued and became her first "Top Five" hit in Canada, in addition to peaking at No. 32 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart in the United States. Her second album, Michelle Wright, was released in July 1990. To support the album, Wright was added as an opening act to Kenny Rogers 1991 tour. The album became a success in Canada.
That year, 1990, Wright was awarded Female Artist of the Year by the Canadian Country Music Association. The following year she was awarded Album of the Year for Michelle Wright, Single of the Year for "New Kind of Love", and Female Artist of the Year again by the Canadian Country Music Association.
Due to the success of her album Michelle Wright and single "New Kind of Love," Wright relocated to Nashville, Tennessee, in 1991 to spend more time advancing her career. The album was also released in Europe after Wright completed a successful tour in mid-1994. In early 1995, Wright embarked on a 40-city tour in Canada, which at that time was the most extensive tour in the history of country music in Canada. The album went on to be successful in Canada, producing three Top Five singles in "Crank My Tractor", "The Answer Is Yes", and "What Love Looks Like". The album was not a success in the United States. In a 1997 interview with Jam!, Wright admitted that she was "very disappointed" and "not happy with what [U.S. radio] did with this album".
During 1997, Wright was awarded the C.F. Martin Humanitarian Award by the Canadian Country Music Association for her international work with the Special Olympics; her successful fundraising efforts for St. Joseph's Hospital in Chatham, Ontario, the hospital where she was born; and her support for the Manitoba flood relief fund. Wright co-wrote eight of the album's twelve songs, and recorded songs by successful songwriters such as Shelly Peiken, who wrote pop singer Christina Aguilera's 1999 hit, "What a Girl Wants".