Chely Wright
Country, Composer
1970 –
Who is Chely Wright?
Richell Rene "Chely" Wright is an American country music artist and gay rights activist. On the strength of her debut album in 1994, the Academy of Country Music 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 had sold over 1,000,000 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".
As a songwriter 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.
We need you!
Help us build the largest biographies collection on the web!
- Born
- Oct 25, 1970
Kansas City - Also known as
- Rochelle Renee Wright
- Wright, Chely
- Richell Rene "Chely" Wright
- Richell Rene Wright
- Spouses
- Lauren Blitzer
(2011/08/20 - )
- Lauren Blitzer
- Ethnicity
- White American
- Nationality
- United States of America
- Profession
- Education
- Middle Tennessee State University
- Lived in
- Wellsville
Submitted
on July 23, 2013
Citation
Use the citation below to add to a bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Chely Wright." Biographies.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 Apr. 2024. <https://www.biographies.net/people/en/chely_wright>.
Discuss this Chely Wright biography with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In