Biography

Keith Lionel Urban (born 26 October 1967) is a New Zealand-born Australian country music singer, songwriter, guitarist, entrepreneur and music competition judge. In 1991, he released a self-titled debut album, and charted four singles in Australia before moving to the United States the following year. He found work as a session guitarist before starting a band known as The Ranch, which recorded one studio album on Capitol Nashville and charted two singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.

Still signed to Capitol, Urban made his solo American debut in 1999 with the album Keith Urban. Certified platinum in the US, it produced his first number one on Hot Country Songs with “But for the Grace of God”. “Somebody Like You”, the first single from his second Capitol album, Golden Road (2002), was named by Billboard as the biggest country hit of the 2000s decade. The album’s fourth single, “You’ll Think of Me”, earned him his first Grammy.

2004’s Be Here, his third American album, produced three more number 1 singles, and became his highest-selling album, earning 4× Platinum certification. Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy Thing was released in 2006, containing “Once in a Lifetime”, as well as his second Grammy song, “Stupid Boy”. A greatest hits package entitled Greatest Hits: 18 Kids followed in late 2007. Defying Gravity and Get Closer were released on March 31, 2009 and November 16, 2010 respectively. In September 2013, he released a brand new album titled Fuse, which produced four more number ones on the newly introduced Country Airplay chart. Two are those number ones are duets with Miranda Lambert and Eric Church. A new single, entitled “John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16”, was released in June 2015 and will serve as the lead-off single to his upcoming eighth American studio album.