Barbara Mandrell

Barbara Mandrell

Barbara Ann Mandrell (born December 25, 1948) is an American country music singer best known for a 1970s–1980s series of Top 10 hits and TV shows, that helped her become one of country's most successful female vocalists of that period. She was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2009.

She was the first performer to win the Country Music Association's "Entertainer of the Year" award twice. She was the only female to do so until Taylor Swift equaled her. She also won twice the Country Music Association's "Female Vocalist of the Year" in 1979 and 1981.

Mandrell's first Billboard No. 1 hit was 1978's "Sleeping Single in a Double Bed", immediately followed by "(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want to Be Right" in early 1979. In 1980, "Years" also reached No. 1. She added one more chart topper in each of the next three years. "I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool" (her signature song), then "'Till You're Gone" and "One of a Kind, Pair of Fools"—all hit number one between 1981 and 1983, a period during which Mandrell also received numerous industry awards and accolades.