general

a young man from Hope Valley, Rhode Island named Billy Gilman released his landmark platinum-selling debut album "One Voice." Two days before his 12th birthday he became the youngest person to hit the Billboard Country singles charts with the title cut (breaking Brenda Lee's old record), which wound up spending 5 weeks at the #1 spot. He is still the youngest person to have performed such a feat. He is also the youngest person to ever put an album in the Billboard Top 5 Country album charts (it debuted at #4). Twelve weeks later, the album went platinum in September of 2000, making him the youngest person in any genre of music to have a platinum album. He is also the youngest person to ever be nominated for a Grammy, in January 2001, and the youngest person to ever win an American Music Award for Best New Artist.