Crystal Shawanda

Although she bases herself in Nashville, TN, these days, singer, songwriter, and guitarist Crystal Shawanda was born full-blooded Ojibwe on the Wikwemikong reserve on Manitoulin Island in Ontario, Canada, and her fascinating journey to becoming a promising young country star is the stuff movies are made of. Shawanda started writing and performing when she was very young, and by the time she was 11 years old she was already picking up playing gigs wherever she could. Her talent and passionate drive soon got her noticed, and she signed with RCA Records Nashville in 2007, quickly releasing the impressive single "You Can Let Go." That would have made for a pretty good story right there, but Shawanda's rise to "instant" fame was actually fully documented in the six-part CMT series Crystal: Living the Dream, which aired at the very start of 2008.