Country Music Star Keith Urban: Top New Male Vocalist of the Year in 2001

Keith Urban is one of today's hottest country music artists. Urban was born October 26, 1967 in New Zealand but was raised in Australia. By the age of 7, Urban had early dreams of coming to America to hit the Nashville country music scene. At the age of twelve, Urban was playing in clubs and quit attending school at the age of fifteen.

In 1992, Keith Urban moved to Nashville to be the lead singer for a little known group called The Ranch. After one album with The Ranch, Urban turned to a solo career. Urban has had continuous success with his music and has set new highs for the country music industry time and time again.

In his 2000 American debut, Urban had three singles to reach the top five in music charts and was named Top New Male Vocalist Of The Year during the 2001 Academy of Country Music Awards. In 2002 with his hit single "Somebody Like You" Urban spent nine weeks at the top of the Country Music Charts. This was a new record and people were taking notice and his repeat performances were sure to please.

One of the biggest sales records that Urban has broken was in August of 2006. Urban had the highest debuting country single in history. His single "Once in a Lifetime" hit the charts at number 17 defeating the former record of Garth Brooks with his single of "Good Ride Cowboy" which debuted in the 18th position.

With eight highly successful albums to his credit, Urban continues to set the country music scene on fire year after year in both the United States and abroad. Even off stage, Keith Urban was setting records and gaining publicity with his voice as well as with his sex appeal. In April of 2001 Urban posed scantily clad in photographs for Playgirl magazine. The photographs and interview with Urban sent Playgirl sales soaring and quickly became the most requested issue in the history of Playgirl Magazine.

Even with fame, fortune, and success, Keith Urban has been very upfront with his battle to overcome addictions. In the 1990's Urban was addicted to cocaine and sought treatment in 1998 to overcome the addiction. Again in 2006, shortly after his marriage to actress to Nicole Kidman, he again checked himself into a rehab center.