Dolly Parton is the most honored and revered female country singer-songwriter of all time. Achieving 25 RIAA-certified gold, platinum, and multi-platinum awards, she has had 26 songs reach #1 on the Billboard country charts, a record for a female artist. Parton recently became the first country artist honored as Grammy MusiCares Person of the Year given out by NARAS. She has 41 career Top 10 country albums, a record for any artist, and 110 career-charted singles over the past 40 years. In 2014, the RIAA recognized her impact on recorded music with a plaque commemorating more than 100 million units sold worldwide. Her 2016 #1 album, "Pure & Simple," which topped the Billboard Top Country Albums and Americana/Folk Albums charts and debuted at No. 1 in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Australia, added to that massive tally. She has garnered ten Grammy Awards and 49 nominations, including the Lifetime Achievement Award and a 2020 win with for KING & COUNTRY for their collaboration on "God Only Knows"; 10 Country Music Association Awards, including Entertainer of the Year; five Academy of Country Music Awards, also including a nod for Entertainer of the Year; four People's Choice Awards; and three American Music Awards. In 1999, Parton was inducted as a member of the coveted Country Music Hall of Fame. Parton has donated over 130 million books to children around the world with her Imagination Library. Her children's book, Coat of Many Colors, was dedicated to the Library of Congress to honor the Imagination Library's 100 millionth book donation. From her "Coat of Many Colors" while working "9-to-5," no dream is too big and no mountain too high for the country girl who turned the world into her stage.
Robert K. Oermann is a Nashville-based music journalist who is considered the "unofficial historian of Nashville's musical heritage." He has written several books on country music, including
Finding Her Voice: The Saga of Women in Country Music, which won the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for music book excellence. He lives with his wife in Nashville, Tennessee.
