Keith Urban is a Grammy-award winning country music singer, songwriter and guitarist. He was a celebrity judge of 'American Idol' and is married to actress Nicole Kidman.
Keith Lionel Urban was born on October 26, 1967, in Whangarei, North Island, New Zealand, and raised in Australia. The musician inherited a passion for American country music from his parents.
By the time he was a teenager, Keith Urban had won several talent shows and joined a country band. His signature style—a mix of rock guitar and country sound—emerged during those formative years. In 1991, he debuted his first album, which enjoyed success in his native Australia. It was time to cut his teeth in Nashville.
Australian transplant Keith Urban decided to pursue stardom in Nashville in the 1990s. In 1999, he released a self-titled solo album, setting the table for an impressive career that produced top-selling albums like Defying Gravity and Fuse as well as numerous Grammy, Country Music Association and Academy of Country Music wins. Additionally, Urban was chosen as a judge for season 12 of the popular singing-competition show American Idol, and he remained on the program through the end of its original run in 2016.
Urban's first Nashville band, the Ranch, made a huge splash, and the group released a self-titled album in 1997 to commercial acclaim. Shortly thereafter, Urban decided to leave the band to pursue a solo career. His talents were quickly recruited by some of the biggest names in country music, including Garth Brooks and the Dixie Chicks.