To Start things out you must know that MARTINA KNOWS BEST

Martina McBride (born Martina Schiff) was born July 29, 1966, in Sharon, Kan., and grew up on a farm singing country music from the moment she could tiptoe up to a mike. Before launching her own career on RCA Records, McBride learned about life on the road by selling T-shirts at Garth Brooks concerts.

Her first album, 1992s The Time Has Come, stumbled, but the 1993 follow-up The Way That I Am introduced her to the country audience with the upbeat single and video My Baby Loves Me.Another single from that album, Independence Day, failed to crack the Top 10. However, by singing about spousal abuse without coming off as preachy, the song has since become McBrides signature song. The video earned a CMA award in 1994, and McBride has rarely released a single since then without an accompanying video.

The title track from 1995s Wild Angels became her first No. 1 hit, and she joined the Grand Ole Opry that same year. She continued to rack up hits -- including A Broken Wing,Happy Girl, Wrong Again, Whatever You Say, I Love You and Loves the Only House and captured her first CMA female vocalist award in 1999.

She took her second CMA female vocalist trophy in 2002, on the strength of her Greatest Hits package, with the new successes When God-Fearin Women Get the Blues, Blessed,Where Would You Be and Concrete Angel. A studio album, Martina, followed in 2003, along with her third female vocalist trophy from the CMA.

HEIGHT: 5 feet 1/2 inches

EYES: blue

HAIR: brown

FAVORITE COLOR: blue

FAVORITE FOOD: home-cooked food like meatloaf, mashed potatoes, roast beef, fried chicken, fruit, vegetables, chocolate, tacos and cheesburgers

FAVORITE KIND OF PIZZA: cheese

FAVORITE SINGERS: Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, Patty Smyth, Lefty Frizzell, K.T. Oslin, George Strait and Linda Ronstadt

FAVORITE SEASON: fall

FAVORITE HOLIDAYS: Christmas

HOBBIES: going to movies, reading, cooking and working around the house

DECORATING STYLE: "My house is pretty much decorated by my kids. Toys on the floor, crayon marking on the refrigerator and that kind of thing."

ADVICE SHE GIVES THEIR DAUGHTERS: "That they can do anything they want to."

MUSICAL INFLUENCES: Connie Smith, Linda Ronstadt, Merle Haggard. "I'd come home from school and practice singing to Linda Ronstadt and Bonnie Raitt records. Other girls in my class were practicing basketball for three hours every day or whatever, but I was singing."

HER BEST SHOT: After high school, Martina took a detour from country to sing rock in Wichita, Kan., where she had a five-nights-a-week nightclub gig belting out the hits of Heart, Pat Benatar and others. "I didn't feel like that music touched me," Martina admits. "And I started having vocal problems from singing in smoky places. So I quit."

FAVORITE ALBUM: Rickie Lee Jones' self-titled debut

CHARITIES: In 2001, Martina won ,000 on ABC-TV's Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, which she donated to the New York Police And Fire Widows' And Children's Benefit Fund. She is also the national celebrity spokesperson for the National Network To End Domestic Violence