Barbara Mandrell

Barbara Mandrell gained great success as a high-energy Las Vegas-style performer who could play many instruments well and knew how to deliver a song. In 1969 at the age of twenty Barbara signed with Columbia Records and had a series of Top Twenty records. After her first big Top Ten Country hit, "Midnight Oil," she moved over to ABC/Dot. Between 1978 and 1984 Mandrell had seventeen Top Ten hits including the landmark number #1 smash "I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool" in 1981. In 1979 and 1981, CMA voters selected Barbara Mandrell as Female Vocalist Of The Year and Entertainer Of The Year in 1980 and '81. In 1980 she and her sisters, Louise and Irlene, starred in their own NBC – TV variety show titled, "Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters." She was still very successful when it ended after three seasons. In the mid-eighties, Mandrell was injured in an automobile accident and in more recent times she has focused on her acting career.