Terri Clark

Terri Lynn Sauson, known professionally as Terri Clark, CM (born August 5, 1968) is a Canadian country music singer who has had success in both Canada and the United States. Signed to Mercury Records in 1995, she released her self-titled debut that year. Both it and its two follow-ups, 1996's Just the Same and 1998's How I Feel, were certified platinum in both countries, and produced several Top Ten country hits. Her fourth album, 2000's Fearless, though certified gold in Canada, was not as successful in the U.S., producing no Top 10 hits. Pain to Kill from 2003 restored her chart momentum in the U.S. with "I Just Wanna Be Mad" and "I Wanna Do It All", while a 2004 greatest hits album produced the Number One "Girls Lie Too". A non-album single, "The World Needs a Drink", and the 2005 album Life Goes On were her last releases for Mercury before she signed to BNA Records in 2007. There, she released the singles "Dirty Girl" and "In My Next Life". Although the latter went to Number One in Canada, she has not released an album for BNA. Clark's albums have accounted for more than twenty singles, including six Number Ones. "If I Were You", "Poor Poor Pitiful Me", "Emotional Girl" and "In My Next Life" all topped the country charts in Canada (the former three were also U.S. Top Ten singles), "Girls Lie Too" reached number one only in the U.S., and "You're Easy on the Eyes" was number one in both countries. In 2004, Clark gained one of country music's crowning achievements when she became a member of the Grand Ole Opry. She was inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame in 2018 and became a member of the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2023. In 2024, Clark released a duets album Terri Clark: Take Two featuring re-recorded versions of her previous hits. Clark was born Terri Lynn Sauson on August 5, 1968, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Her family eventually settled in Medicine Hat, Alberta, where she was raised. She is the second of four children: she has a younger brother, Peter, an older sister, Kim, and younger sister, Tina. Clark's grandparents, Ray and Betty Gauthier, were both noted Canadian country musicians, having opened for artists such as George Jones and Johnny Cash. Clark's mother, Linda, had belonged to the Canadian folk scene. Her parents divorced when she was young and her mother remarried, with Terri taking on her stepfather's last name. By high school, Clark had grown to love country music and worked at a local Chinese restaurant to save money to move to Nashville, Tennessee. After graduating from Crescent Heights High School in 1986, she moved to Nashville where she got her start playing at Tootsie's Orchid Lounge, a honky-tonk bar across the alley from Nashville's iconic Ryman Auditorium. At that time, country music executives were largely uninterested in traditional country, but record producer and singer Keith Stegall gave Clark advice and encouragement to not give up. In 1994, Stegall became an executive at PolyGram/Mercury Records in Nashville and promptly signed Clark to a record deal. In 1995, Clark issued her first single, "Better Things to Do." The song managed to reach the top five in both the United States and Canada. Her debut album, Terri Clark, followed shortly after. Clark had a hand in writing or co-writing 11 of the album's 12 tracks. Terri Clark also featured the singles "When Boy Meets Girl," "If I Were You," and "Suddenly Single." "If I Were You" became Clark's first No. 1 in Canada in June 1996. The album was certified Gold by the RIAA in the United States on April 5, 1996, and Platinum on July 29, 1997. In 1996, Clark's second studio album, Just the Same, was issued following the album's first single, "Poor Poor Pitiful Me," a cover of the 1976 Warren Zevon song. The song and its second single, "Emotional Girl," reached number one in Canada with both songs reaching the top ten in the United States. During late 1996, Clark was awarded Single of the Year for "Better Things to Do" and Album of the Year for Terri Clark by the Canadian Country Music Association. By 1997 she would also be awarded the Fans' Choice Award, an award she would win six more times between 2001 and 2007, and Female Artist of the Year, and award she would also claim in 2004 and 2005. In March 1998, Clark visited Calgary, Alberta, Canada to film her first television special, Terri Clark: Coming Home, which premiered March 27 on CBC in Canada. During the special Clark was visited by Canadian country singers Paul Brandt and George Fox. Clark's third studio album, How I Feel, was issued in May 1998. The album's lead single, "Now That I Found You," reached the top five in both the United States and Canada. It was the album's second single, "You're Easy on the Eyes," that gave Clark's first American No. 1, the song also reached No. 1 in Canada. "You're Easy on the Eyes" became a minor Top 40 hit, peaking at No. 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. To promote the new album, Clark was added as the opening act for Reba McEntire and Brooks & Dunn 1998 tour. Fearless, Clark's fourth studio album, was issued in September 2000. During the album's production, Clark started writing more personal songs with a new team of co-writers and hired a new producer to deliver a set of songs with a more acoustic feel than that of her previous work. The album's first single, "A Little Gasoline", was a late addition to the album because Mercury executives felt Clark needed to balance her new material with something that had a more familiar feel to it. The song reached the top ten in Canada, however, only reaching No. 13 in the United States. On May 2, 2001, Clark was pulled over by police for speeding in Nashville. The officer, who pulled Clark over, had suspected that she had consumed alcohol and asked her to do sobriety test, after which Clark refused and was charged with a DUI and implied consent. Clark later apologized for the incident through a statement that was issued to press by her publicist. In August, Clark pleaded guilty to a charge of reckless driving and was fined $350 plus court costs, placed on six months' supervised probation and ordered to take an alcohol education course. After a management change in December 2001, Clark began work on her fifth studio album, Pain to Kill. The album was issued in January 2003, followed after the release of the album's first single, "I Just Wanna Be Mad". The song, written by Kelley Lovelace and Lee Thomas Miller, was initially intended to be recorded by Sara Evans, who passed on it. When released as a single the song became Clark's highest-charting single in the United States since 1998's "You're Easy on the Eyes" and is to date Clark's highest appearance on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 27. The album marked the first time Clark had worked with producer Byron Gallimore, who produced the first half of the album. The other half was produced by Clark's longtime producer Keith Stegall, who was brought in when Gallimore became unavailable. In early 2004, Clark was approached by Playboy magazine to pose—clothed—for the cover of the magazine's upcoming May issue. Clark, who came in second place behind fellow Canadian country singer Shania Twain in a poll in the previous year, turned down the offer saying "I think of all the young girls who come to my shows, I think of those faces, I think of my mother, and I worry about the signal [sex] sends to them[…] If I’m sexy enough for Playboy to want me with my clothes on, then I hope the message can be that sexy is about what’s between your ears, in your heart and your smile." On May 15, 2004, during a performance of the Grand Ole Opry, Clark was surprised by Steve Wariner and her mother Linda with an invitation to join the Grand Ole Opry. Clark was officially inducted on June 12, 2004, and is currently the only female Canadian member of the Grand Ole Opry. Shortly after her induction, Clark's first greatest hits album, Greatest Hits 1994–2004, was issued.