Candles against the wind

The Dixie Chicks, an American all-female country music trio comprising Emily Robison, Martie Maguire and Natalie Maines, have done it. They won five five Grammy Awards this time and are the second highest-selling female group in any musical genre, behind Destiny’s Child.

The group was formed in 1989 in Dallas, Texas. After years of struggle and personnel changes, the Dixie Chicks achieved massive country and pop success starting in the late 1990s with hit songs such as Wide Open Spaces, Cowboy Take Me Away and Long Time Gone. By 2007, they had won 14 Grammy Awards for their recordings. The group became well-known for their lively persona, instrumental virtuosity, fashion sense, and outspoken political comments.

In particular, lead vocalist Natalie Maines’s public criticism of President George W. Bush on the eve of the 2003 invasion of Iraq led to considerable controversy for the group, and cost them half of their concert audience attendance in the US as chronicled in the 2006 documentary Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing.

At the 49th Grammy in 2007, the Chicks won all five categories for which they were nominated, including Album of the Year, in a vote they interpret as partly a reaction to the storm from Maines’ comment.