The Chicks (previously known as Dixie Chicks) are an American country music band from Dallas, Texas. Since 1995, the band has consisted of Natalie Maines (lead vocals, guitar) and sisters Martie Maguire (vocals, fiddle, mandolin, guitar) and Emily Strayer (vocals, guitar, banjo, Dobro). Maguire and Strayer founded the band in 1989 in Dallas, Texas, with bassist Laura Lynch and vocalist and guitarist Robin Lynn Macy. They performed bluegrass and country music, busking and touring the bluegrass festival circuits and small venues for six years without attracting a major label. In 1992, Macy left and Lynch became the lead vocalist.
Upon signing with Monument Records Nashville in 1997 and replacing Lynch with Maines, the Chicks achieved success with their albums Wide Open Spaces (1998) and Fly (1999). After Monument closed its Nashville branch, The Chicks moved to Columbia Records for Home (2002). These albums achieved multi-platinum sales in the United States, Canada, and Australia, along with several charting singles on the American Billboard Hot Country Songs charts. "There's Your Trouble", "Wide Open Spaces", "You Were Mine", "Cowboy Take Me Away", "Without You", and a cover of Bruce Robison's "Travelin' Soldier" reached number one. The Chicks also reached number one on the Adult Contemporary chart with their 2002 cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide".
Days before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Maines told a London audience that the Chicks did not endorse the war and were ashamed of US President George W. Bush being from Texas. The remarks triggered boycotts in the US and a backlash from fans. After a hiatus, the Chicks released Taking the Long Way in 2006, an album informed by the backlash. "Not Ready to Make Nice" became their biggest crossover single, reaching number four on the Billboard Hot 100. After another hiatus, Maguire and Strayer released an album in 2009 as the Court Yard Hounds. The Chicks reunited to tour in the 2010s. In 2020, they removed "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 US, The Chicks had become the best-selling all-woman band and best-selling country group in the US during the Nielsen SoundScan era (1991–present).
