Martina Mariea McBride (née Schiff, July 29, 1966) is an American country music singer and songwriter.

She signed to RCA Records in 1991, and made her debut the following year as a neo-traditionalist country singer with the single, "The Time Has Come".

After school, she sang for hours along to the records of such popular artists as Reba McEntire, Linda Ronstadt, Juice Newton, Jeanne Pruett, Connie Smith, and Patsy Cline.

John McBride joined Garth Brooks's sound crew and later became his concert production manager.

In 1990, impressed by her enthusiastic spirit, Brooks offered her the position of his opening act provided she could obtain a recording contract.

[2] McBride released her debut studio album by RCA Records in 1992, titled The Time Has Come.

This album's title track made it to number 23 on the country music charts, while the next two singles both failed to make the Top 40.

Its first two singles both brought her into the country top ten: "My Baby Loves Me", the album's de facto title song, peaked at number two, and "Life No.

However, it was the third single, "Independence Day", which was prevented from reaching the Top 10 through the oppositions of many radio programmers, who objected to the song's subject of a mother fighting back against abuse by burning the family home to the ground.

[11] McBride later criticized these single choices, saying that she felt "Strangers" would have been a better followup, as that song was more popular with fans and later appeared on her first greatest-hits album.

"My Baby Loves Me (Just The Way That I Am)", as produced and released, proved to have a sing-along quality that led McBride to sing it that way in her subsequent concerts.

It accounted for another Top 5 hit in its lead single "Safe in the Arms of Love", which had previously been recorded by both Wild Choir and Baillie & the Boys, and was concurrently released in Canada by Michelle Wright at the time of McBride's version.

[11] The album's third, fourth, and fifth singles, "Phones Are Ringin' All Over Town", "Swingin' Doors", and "Cry on the Shoulder of the Road" were less successful, having reached the lower regions of the Top 40.

[15] She also sang duet vocals on "Chances Are" with Bob Seger, featured on the soundtrack of the 1998 motion picture Hope Floats.

Evolution went on to produce four more Top 10 hits at country radio: a re-release of "Valentine", "Happy Girl", "Wrong Again" (which also went to number one), and "Whatever You Say".

[11] Towards the end of 1998, the album was certified double platinum in sales by the Recording Industry Association of America for selling two million units.

The song's follow-ups, "Love's the Only House" and "There You Are", both made the Top 5 at country radio, and "It's My Time" peaked at number 11.

It also included backing vocals from Faith Hill, Carolyn Dawn Johnson, and McBride's daughters, Delaney and Emma.

[18] The album included cover versions of country music standards, such as Hank Williams' "You Win Again", Loretta Lynn's "You Ain't Woman Enough", and Kris Kristofferson's "Help Me Make It Through the Night".

The remaining five finalists traveled to Nashville, where McBride worked with the competitors on the songs they had chosen by country artists such as Gordon Lightfoot and Patsy Cline.

She set up her Waking Up Laughing Tour in 2007, which included country artists Rodney Atkins, Little Big Town, and Jason Michael Carroll.

McBride also initiated the Shine All Night Tour, a co-headlining venture with fellow country star and friend Trace Adkins and opening act Sarah Buxton.

In late 2010, McBride was nominated for two American Country Awards (Best Female Single & Touring Artist of the year w/ Trace Adkins.)

McBride told Country Weekly that she co-wrote eight of the eleven songs on the album; she decided to write more frequently because she felt more confident in her songwriting ability after "Anyway" had become a hit.

RCA Records released two compilation albums in 2012, Hits and More in January and The Essential Martina McBride in October.

According to McBride, the purpose of the tour was to unite people and spread love through the power of music as a response to the "tragedy and uncertainty in the world".

[41] In 1988, Martina Schiff, as she was known up to that time, married sound engineer John McBride, taking his family name as her stage name.

Joe Galante said this was "an enormous choice in terms of money", but McBride had made it very clear that she wanted to be present in her daughters' lives.

[46]McBride has also teamed up with Loveisrespect, National Teen Dating Abuse Helpline, working with them on a new program called, "My Time to Shine".

[47] McBride appeared on the Stand Up 2 Cancer Telethon in September 2010, where she performed "Unchained Melody" with Leona Lewis, Aaron Neville, and Stevie Wonder.