Keith Urban

Keith Urban is a country singer, songwriter and guitarist from Whangārei, Australia, with a career that spans country, pop rock and electropop. He is active in both Australia and the United States, and his commercial breakthrough comes largely through the American country market.

Early life and move to Australia

Urban is born in 1967 in Whangārei. His family moves to Australia before he turns two. He starts learning guitar at six, begins entering and winning talent contests at eight, and by twelve he is booking his band in local clubs. At fifteen he leaves school to go on the road. From an early age he also thinks about moving to the United States to build a career in Nashville.

Early career and The Ranch

In 1990 Urban signs with EMI in Australia and records his first solo album. That album produces four No. 1 country hits in Australia. In 1992 he moves to Nashville to pursue the country market there. He first gains wider attention as the front man of The Ranch, a three-piece group that releases one album in 1997 and receives critical acclaim. He later ends the group to continue as a solo artist.

Solo success

After a period of drug addiction in the late 1990s, Urban checks into Cumberland Heights in Nashville in 1998 and returns to recording. His self-titled American debut appears in 2000 and yields three top-five hits. He wins the Top New Male Vocalist Award at the 2001 Academy of Country Music Awards. He is also regarded as a modern guitar virtuoso and works as a session musician on albums including Garth Brooks’ Double Live and the Dixie Chicks’ Fly.

His 2002 album Golden Road becomes a major commercial success, led by “Somebody Like You”, which spends eight consecutive weeks at No. 1 and is the longest-running country No. 1 of 2002. Three other singles follow, with two reaching No. 1 and one reaching No. 3. The album goes platinum in every country where it is released and triple platinum in the United States.

Be Here follows in 2004 and is nominated for best country album at the Grammy Awards and the Academy of Country Music Awards. Of its five singles, three reach No. 1 and two reach No. 2. The album is triple platinum in the United States by 2006. Urban also releases Days Go By, a greatest hits collection, in Europe.

Recognition and live work

By the middle of the 2000s Urban has thirteen singles released, with seven reaching No. 1, two reaching No. 2, two reaching No. 3, one reaching No. 4 and one reaching No. 18. He tours as a support act for Brooks & Dunn and Kenny Chesney, which helps develop his live performance. CMT sponsors his first headlining arena tour, Keith Urban Be Here '04. He follows with the Alive in '05 tour. In 2005 he is named CMA Entertainer of the Year.

Urban also performs at Live 8 in Philadelphia in 2005, appears in The Gap’s “Favorites” campaign, and records the DVD Livin’ Right Now in California in December 2004, which is issued later. He performs “Better Life” at the CMA Awards, “You’ll Think of Me” at the American Music Awards, and “You’ll Think of Me” and “The Lucky One” with Faith Hill at the Grammys. At the 2006 ACM Awards he performs “Tonight I Wanna Cry” and plays guitar on Brooks & Dunn’s “Believe”.

Personal life

After arriving in Nashville in 1992, Urban is in an on-off relationship with veterinary technician Laura Sigler. They live together from 1998 to 2002, and he mentions her in sleeve notes to his self-titled album and in the dedication of “You’re The Only One”. He proposes in 2001, and they separate in 2002. He later dates supermodel Niki Taylor after she appears in the video for “Somebody Like You”, and they are together on and off for three years before splitting in 2005. In 2005 he meets actress Nicole Kidman at an event in Hollywood, they become engaged in 2006, and they marry in Australia on 25 June 2006 at the Cardinal Cerretti Memorial Chapel in Manly, Sydney.

Selected collaborations and associations

Urban performs and records with a number of major country artists, including Brooks & Dunn, Kenny Chesney, Garth Brooks, the Dixie Chicks and Faith Hill. He is also associated with Mark Knopfler’s Guitar Heroes and with labels including Capitol Records Nashville and EMI Music Australia.