Sara Evans

With five No. 1 hit singles, several multi-platinum albums, and a growing list of awards and accolades, Sara Evans is anything but your typical country music singer. The Missouri native started her music career at age five singing in her family’s band on weekends. At eight, she was struck by a car and suffered multiple leg fractures, leaving her temporarily bound to a wheelchair—and out of her talent and sheer force of will—sang regularly to help pay her medical bills. By 16, Evans was performing regularly in a nightclub near Columbia, Missouri and finally moved to Nashville in 1991 to become a country music artist.

Her hard work paid off in 1998 with the release of her second album, No Place That Far, whose title track netted Evans her first No. 1 single on the country music charts. Her career exploded two years later with the release of her third album, Born to Fly, which produced several hit songs and was certified double platinum by the RIAA in 2004. As a result, Evans became the most-nominated artist at the 2001 Country Music Association Awards with seven nominations overall. The video for “Born to Fly” won Video of the Year and became her first major industry award.

Evans’ output and work has been diverse in recent years. She released six more full length albums, co-wrote three books with Rachel Hauck, and became the first country music star to feature on ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars.” When she’s not touring or making one-off appearances on shows like Celebrity Family Feud, Evans can be found in her Alabama home with her husband, former pro-quarterback Jay Barker, and their seven kids. “Everything in my professional life is a reflection of my personal life and I feel confident, happy, and settled,” Evans said recently.