Reba Nell McEntire, also known mononymously as Reba, (born March 28,
1955) is an American country music singer, actress and businesswoman. She is
often referred to as "the Queen of
Country,"[3] having sold more than 75 million records
worldwide.[4] Since the 1970s, McEntire has placed over 100
singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, 25 of which reached the number
one spot.] She is also credited as an actress, having
appeared in both films and television.[6] She starred in the television series Reba, which aired for six seasons. She also owns several
businesses, including a clothing line. One of four children,
McEntire was born and raised in the state of Oklahoma. In childhood and
adolescence, her interests included barrel racing and sports. She also had a natural singing
ability, which was encouraged by her mother. With her mother's help, she and
her siblings formed the Singing McEntires, which played at local events and
recorded for a small label. McEntire later enrolled at Southeastern
Oklahoma State University and studied to become a public school
teacher. She also continued to occasionally perform and was heard singing at a
rodeo event by country performer Red Steagall. Drawn to her singing voice, Steagall helped
McEntire secure a country music recording contract with PolyGram/Mercury Records in 1975. Over the next several years,
PolyGram/Mercury released a series of McEntire's albums and singles, which
amounted to little success. In the early 1980s, McEntire's music gained more
momentum through several top ten country songs, including "(You Lift Me) Up to Heaven",
"I'm Not That Lonely Yet"
and her first number one "Can't Even Get the Blues".
Yet McEntire became increasingly unhappy with her career trajectory and signed
with MCA Records in 1984. Her second MCA
album titled My Kind of Country (1984) became
her breakout release, spawning two number one Billboard country
singles and pointed towards a more traditional musical style. Through the
1980s, McEntire released seven more studio albums and had ten more number one
country hits. Her number one singles included "One Promise Too Late",
"The Last One to Know"
and the Grammy Award-winning "Whoever's in New England".
In 1991, McEntire lost eight of her band members in a plane crash in San Diego, California. The
experience led to McEntire's critically acclaimed album For My Broken Heart,
which is her highest-selling disc to date. She followed it with several
commercially successful albums during the 1990s, including Read My Mind (1994), What If It's You (1996) and If You See Him (1998). These albums featured the
number one country singles "The Heart Is a
Lonely Hunter", "How Was I to
Know" and a duet with Brooks and Dunn called "If You See Him/If You See Her".
McEntire also began acting on film and television, beginning with 1990's Tremors. In 2001, she
played the role of Annie Oakley in the Broadway
musical Annie Get Your Gun.
The same year, the WB channel launched
the TV series Reba, which starred McEntire in the lead role. The
show became successful and ran until 2007. In 2004, McEntire returned to her
country recording career with the top five Billboard album Room to Breathe.
She followed the release with 2007's Reba: Duets, 2009's Keep On Loving You and
2011's All the Women I Am.
Her 2000's albums spawned the number one singles "Somebody",
"Consider Me Gone" and
"Turn on the Radio".
In 2012, McEntire briefly returned to television with the series Malibu Country and in 2018 portrayed the role
of Colonel Sanders in
television commercials for KFC. She has continued releasing new music,
including Love Somebody (2015), Sing It Now (2017)
and Revived Remixed Revisited (2021).