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Rita MacNeil (born May 28, 1944 in Big Pond, Nova
Scotia) is a Canada|Canadian country music|country
and folk music|folk singer. Her biggest hit,
"Flying On Your Own", was a crossover Top 40 hit
in 1987, although she has had hits on the country
charts throughout her career.


She has continued to be a popular figure in
Canadian music. In 1990, she was the bestselling
country artist in Canada, outselling even Garth
Brooks and Clint Black. She is also the only
female singer ever to have three separate albums
chart in the same year in Australia.

MacNeil first performed on stage in 1971, and
recorded her first album, Born a Woman, in 1975.
She performed at folk festivals throughout the
1970s and 1980s, culminating in her major label
debut and pop breakthrough in 1987.

MacNeil is one of Canada's most unlikely music
stars; she was born with a cleft palate and is
significantly overweight. Although she has
sometimes been subjected to fat jokes (one
particularly common one is to render her name as
"Eata BigMeal"), she is also widely admired for
her gracious personality and her perseverance.
When a newspaper columnist in Philadelphia made
fun of MacNeil's weight after she sang "O Canada"
at a game in the 1993 World Series, his comments
caused considerable controversy in Canada. (The
columnist had written that MacNeil looked like she
could only be moved by forklift; MacNeil
subsequently commented that if she were asked to
sing the national anthem at another game, she
would make being carried out onto the field by
forklift a condition of her acceptance.)

MacNeil hosted a Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation|CBC television variety show, Rita and
Friends, from 1994 to 1997. She also runs a tea
room in her hometown of Big Pond, which has become
one of Cape Breton Island's most popular tourist
attractions.

She was inducted into the Order of Canada in 1992.


==Discography==
* Born a Woman (1975)
* Part of the Mystery (1981)
* I'm Not What I Seem (1983)
* Flying On Your Own (1987)
* Reason to Believe (1988)
* Now the Bells Ring (1988)
* Rita (1989)
* Home I'll Be (1990)
* Thinking of You (1992)
* Once Upon a Christmas (1993)
* Volume 1 - Songs from the Collection (1994,
greatest hits)
* Porch Songs (1995)
* Joyful Sounds (1996)
* Music of a Thousand Nights (1997)
* Full Circle (1998)
* A Night at the Orpheum (1999)
* Mining the Soul (2000)
* Late December (2002)
* Common Dream (2002)
* The Ultimate Collection (2004, greatest hits)
* Blue Roses (2004)

==External links==
* http://www.ritamacneil.com/index.htm Rita
MacNeil's home page