Tim Dubois was building the roster for the new Arista/Nashville label when a rising Canadian artist caught his attention: Michelle Wright. He signed her, brought her to Nashville, and in 1990 released her first U.S. album, Michelle Wright. American fans responded fast—drawn to “that girl singer from up north with the snow in her videos”—and her debut single, “New Kind of Love,” became her first U.S. Top 30 hit.

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Two years later, Now & Then turned momentum into history. The album spun off six singles, including “One Time Around,” “Guitar Talk,” “He Would Be Sixteen,” and the breakthrough that changed everything: “Take It Like a Man.” Released in February 1992, it made Wright the first Canadian-born artist of the modern country era to score a U.S. Top 10 hit, land a No. 1 video on CMT-USA, and win a major American industry honor—ACM Top New Female Vocalist. The song launched her into superstardom, helping earn a stack of awards and pushing Now & Then to double-platinum status.

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What followed is the kind of career most artists only imagine: more than forty major awards (including her 2011 induction into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame), twelve albums, millions of records sold, and twenty-five Top 10 radio hits—plus touring that’s taken her across North America, Europe, Africa, South America, Australia, and Asia.

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In 2022, Wright marked a new chapter with Milestone (BFD/Audium Nashville), produced by Bob Funk. The project includes nine new songs, led by the autobiographical “Small Town,” and features a fresh recording of her signature classic “Take It Like a Man”—with key players from the original session returning to the studio to recreate the magic.

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Fans have kept the demand high, too, prompting a run of remastered reissues and new holiday releases, including 2025’s “Let’s Make Memories For Christmas.” Still averaging around 65 shows a year, Wright continues to tour heavily—most recently crisscrossing Canada on The Great Canadian Roadtrip—and she’s already looking ahead to more dates, more studio time, and more of what she loves most: the songs, the road, and the people who meet her there.