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Richell Rene "Chely" Wright (; born October 25, 1970) is an American country music singer and gay rights activist. On the strength of her debut album in 1994, the Academy of Country Music (ACM) named her Top New Female Vocalist in 1995. Wright's first Top 40 country hit came in 1997 with "Shut Up and Drive". Two years later, her fourth album yielded a number one single, the title track, "Single White Female". Overall, Wright has released seven studio albums on various labels, and has charted more than fifteen singles on the country charts. As of May 2010, Wright's previous eight albums and 19 singles released had sold over 1,500,000 copies in the United States. In May 2010, Wright became one of the first major country music performers to publicly come out as lesbian. 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". 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. On May 4, 2010, Wright simultaneously released her memoir, ''Like Me'', and her first album of new songs since 2005, ''Lifted Off the Ground''. Wright announced via Twitter that she will start recording a new studio album (her 8th) in September 2015. The yet to be titled album will be produced by Grammy Award winner Joe Henry. ==Early years== Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Wright grew up in a musical family in Wellsville, Kansas, a town with a population of less than 2,000. According to her autobiography, ''Like Me'', she wanted to be a country music performer since the age of four, and realized at age eight that she was gay. As a young child, Wright took piano lessons,〔Wright (2010) chapters, "House of the Rising Sun", Let Me Sing for You〕 and began professional singing appearances by age 11,〔Wright (2010) p. 35〕 including playing "Taps" on bugle at the funerals of veterans at the local American Legion.〔Wright (2010) p. 95〕 A Christian,〔(Confessions of a Gay Christian Country Singer ), Huffington Post, 6/24/2011〕 Wright harbored the belief that her sexual orientation was immoral, that her secret would kill her career hopes. From early childhood, she resolved to never confide her orientation to anyone or to pursue romantic relationships with women.〔Wright (2010) chapter, Learning to Hide〕 The summer before her senior year of high school, she worked as a performing musician at the ''Ozark Jubilee'', a long-running country music show in Branson, Missouri. In 1989, immediately after high school, she landed a position in a musical production at Opryland USA, a now-defunct theme park in Nashville, Tennessee. She lived permanently in Nashville until 2008. In 1993, Harold Shedd signed her to Mercury/Polygram, and her first album was released in 1994 on the Polydor label.〔Wright, 2010 pp. 75, 77.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Chely Wright」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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