10 Country Artists (Not) Born in the U.S.A.

When most people think about country and western music, places like Nashville, Texas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Oklahoma and New Mexico come to mind first. It may surprise you to learn that there are more than a few notable country singers who were not born in the U.S. of A. Read on to find out who they are.

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Shania Twain: Canada

You would think the best-selling female country artist of all time would surely be American, but Shania Twain was born in Windsor, Ontario, Canada in 1965. The "You're Still the One" and "That Don't Impress Me Much" singer is pictured here performing with Harry Styles at the 2022 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

 Keith Urban: New Zealand

Keith Urban was born in Whangarei, New Zealand in 1967, but moved to Australia with his parents when he was two. The Australian-American singer of "You Look Good in My Shirt" and "You'll Think of Me" has been married to Nicole Kidman since 2006.

Dean Brody: Canada

Dean Cody was born in Smithers, British Columbia, Canada in 1975 and grew up in Jaffray, British Columbia. The "Brothers" singer has won 16 Canadian Country Music Association awards and 2 Juno awards. He released his seventh album, Boys, in 2020.

Jamie O'Neal: Australia

Jamie O'Neal was born in Sydney, Australia in 1968. She released her first album, Shiver, in 2000, which contained the hits "There Is No Arizona" and "When I Think About Angels." O'Neal released her fourth album, Sometimes, in 2020, which contains duets with Lauren Alaina, Martina McBride, Sara Evans and John Paul White.

Olivia Newton-John: England

Olivia Newton-John was born in Cambridge, England in 1948 and emigrated to Melbourne, Australia with her family when she was six. The Grammy-winning singer of "Let Me Be There" is not exclusively a country artist, but she returned to Nashville in 1998 to record the country album Back with a Heart. The beloved star of Grease is currently battling stage IV cancer and is a vocal advocate for medical cannabis.

Anne Murray: Canada

Anne Murray was born in the coal-mining town of Springhill, Nova Scotia, Canada in 1945. With her 1983 album A Little Good News, Murray became both the first woman and the first Canadian to win the CMA award for Album of the Year. The "You Needed Me" singer retired in 2008 and later said, "I wanted to go out still singing well and not having to make excuses."

Dallas Smith: Canada

Dallas Smith was born in Langley, British Columbia, Canada in 1977. The "Wastin' Gas" singer has more number-one songs on Billboard's Canada Country chart than any other Canadian artist (yes, even Shania Twain). Smith records as a solo artist and as the lead singer of the rock band Default. He released his fourth solo album, Timeless, in 2020.

Michelle Wright: Canada

Michelle Wright was born in Chatham, Ontario, Canada in 1961. She is one of Canada's biggest country stars of the 1990s thanks to hits such as "Take It Like a Man," "One Time Around," "Guitar Talk," "One Good Man" and "Nobody's Girl." In 2021, she released the timely song "Looking for a Lockdown with You" with fellow Canadian country artists Aaron Goodvin, Duane Steele, Amber Marshall and Scarlett Butler.

k.d. lang: Canada

k.d. lang was born Kathryn Dawn Lang in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in 1961. The Grammy-winning "Constant Craving" singer is an animal and LGBTQIA+ activist as well as a practitioner of old-school Tibetan Buddhism. In 2020, she performed Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" at Fire Fight Australia in Sydney to raise funds for bushfire relief.

Hank Snow: Canada

 

 

 

Hank Snow was born in the small town of Brooklyn (no, not the NYC borough) in Queens County, Nova Scotia, Canada in 1914. Snow, who idolized Jimmie Rodgers, moved to Nashville, Tennessee in 1949 and began a career in country music that spanned 50 years and included self-written hit songs such as "I'm Moving On," "The Golden Rocket" and "The Rhumba Boogie." There is now a museum dedicated exclusively to Snow in Liverpool, Nova Scotia, Canada.

 

READ MORE: 15 Country Singers Who Were Born in Texas