The Chicks Details

The Chicks are an American country pop group composed of singer Natalie Maines and multi-instrumentalist sisters Martie Erwin Maguire and Emily Strayer. The band formed as the Dixie Chicks in 1989 in Dallas, Texas, and was originally composed of four women performing bluegrass and country music, busking and touring the bluegrass festival circuits and small venues for six years without attracting a major label. After the departure of one bandmate, the replacement of their lead singer, and a change in their repertoire, the Chicks achieved commercial success, beginning in 1998 with hit songs "There's Your Trouble" and "Wide Open Spaces".

Days before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Maines told a London audience the band did not endorse the war and were "ashamed" of US President George W. Bush being from Texas. The statement led to boycotts in the US and backlash from fans; corporate broadcasting networks blacklisted them for the remainder of the Bush years. After a hiatus, they toured again in 2010, 2013 and 2016. In 2020, they dropped "Dixie" from their name, citing negative connotations, and released their first album in 14 years, Gaslighter.

The Chicks have won 13 Grammy Awards, including five in 2007 for Taking the Long Way—which received the Grammy Award for Album of the Year—and its single "Not Ready to Make Nice"—which received the Grammy Award for Record of the Year and the Grammy Award for Song of the Year. By July 2020, with 33 million certified albums sold, and sales of 27.9 million albums in the U.S. alone, they had become the best-selling female band and best-selling country group in the U.S. during the Nielsen SoundScan era (1991–present).