Stephanie Bentley

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Stephanie Kay Bentley (born April 29, 1963) is an American country music singer and songwriter. Born in Thomasville, Georgia, she showed musical talent early, winning a talent contest at age nine with her sister and a friend. She formed a group that even sang for President Jimmy Carter and later started a band called Special Delivery in 1984. In 1991 she moved to Nashville to work as a demo singer. One of her demo tracks, “Shake the Sugar Tree,” was later turned into a Top 5 hit for Pam Tillis, with Bentley’s demo vocals used in Tillis’ recording.

Bentley signed with Epic Records in 1995 after a stint with Liberty Records. Her first chart entry came in 1996 as a duet partner on Ty Herndon’s “Heart Half Empty,” which reached No. 21 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart and appeared on Herndon’s What Mattered Most and on Bentley’s debut album Hopechest. Her solo single “Who’s That Girl” peaked at No. 32, and the Hopechest album yielded a few more singles, none of which made the Top 40. She did not chart as an artist after the late 1990s, but she found major success as a songwriter.

Bentley wrote Faith Hill’s 1999 hit “Breathe,” a breakthrough crossover tune that spent weeks at the top of the country charts and was the No. 1 song of 2000 on the Billboard Hot 100 year-end countdown. She also co-wrote Martina McBride’s 2002 hit “Concrete Angel.” In addition, she has written songs for Céline Dion, Pam Tillis, and Jo Dee Messina, and for Gloriana—“Wild at Heart” (2009) and “Can’t Shake You” (2012). Bentley contributed “I Will Survive” to the Holes soundtrack (2003) and “Don’t It Feel Good” to the Must Love Dogs soundtrack (2005).