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All Music Guide:
CCM singer/songwriter Ginny Owens was born and raised in Jackson, MS; blind from the age of two, she graduated Belmont University with a degree in Music Education, but found most schools apprehensive about hiring a sight-impaired music teacher. Around the same time Owens recorded her first demo tape, soon signing to Rocketown Records; her debut album Without Condition followed in mid-1999.
Wikipedia:
Virginia "Ginny" Leigh Owens (born April 22, 1975) is a blind Contemporary Christian music singer/songwriter. Owens had three albums chart on Billboard albums charts in the late 1990s and 2000s. She is best known for the song "If You Want me To".
Career [edit]
Owens was born in Jackson, Mississippi, with poor eyesight and has been blind since the age of two. She earned her bachelor of music education in 1997 from Belmont University, but found that most people were skeptical about hiring a blind music teacher. She entered the music business by writing songs for Michael Puryear's Final Four Publishing, which led to a number of labels competing for her, before she chose Rocketown Records. She concentrated in singing and songwriting and began making CDs, and has been producing them since 1999 with Rocketown Records, a label under Michael W. Smith. Owens won the Nashville "Lilith Fair '99 Talent Search", which earned her a spot singing at that year's festival, and the following year performed at the Sundance Film Festival.
Her music has been featured on television shows, such as Roswell and Felicity. Owens has also received three Dove awards, including New Artist of the Year (2000) and Inspirational Recorded Song of the Year (2001) for "Blessed" with Rachael Lampa and Cindy Morgan.
In 2005, Owens started a non-profit organization called the Fingerprint Initiative. The organization has worked in conjunction with other groups, such as Compassion International, International Justice Mission, and Habitat for Humanity. Owens was featured on national television, including NBC's Today Show and CNN, for her contribution to help rebuild New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. Owens has just recently released her new album, " Get In, I'm Driving".
