At a time when the term "survivor" is bandied about daily, country singer Jo Dee Messina truly epitomizes the word. She has staved off death and bankruptcy, and she has flourished in a business not exactly known for its kindness to struggling artists.

Like the word "survivor," the Grammy Awards have also been devalued in recent years, derided by critics who question their merit and their relevance in a world oversaturated with awards shows. But Messina's Grammy nomination for Best Female Country Performance, for her single "That's the Way," is a true honor—a symbol of her triumph over numerous and often staggering challenges.

This fiery redhead is quick with her ear-shattering, cartoonish giggle, but her lighthearted demeanor masks a relentless drive, one propelled by the fact that twice in her life, she nearly lost it all—quite literally. Saddled with $500,000 in business debts just a few years ago, she was advised by her management team to declare bankruptcy, which could have effectively ended her career right then and there.

But even in her weakest moments, Messina decided to fight for her career, to persevere when it appeared that every chance had been used up. It's hard to know whether the singer was born with this strength, or whether she emerged with it after experiencing a horrifying, life-threatening accident at age 6. The first-grader was walking with her siblings and neighbors to buy garden feed in her hometown of Hilliston, Mass., when she was struck by a car, thrown 15 feet into the air, and then run over by a second vehicle. Knocked unconscious and riddled with serious internal injuries, she was rushed by ambulance to the nearest hospital.

"All of a sudden, I came to and I kept saying, 'I can't breathe, I can't breathe,' " Messina recalls, speaking publicly about the accident for the first time ever. "The ambulance guy said, 'You're breathing just fine.' The last thing my mother heard me say was, 'Mister, can I pray?' He said, 'Yeah, you can pray.' "

She was rushed into surgery, where doctors repaired a ruptured spleen, damaged liver and intestines, broken ribs, and a broken collarbone. The second car had stopped with its exhaust pipe right over her face, leaving her eyes swollen shut and her face black, green, and blue. "My brother came in to see me in recovery and ran out screaming," she says.

Healing was a gradual process, requiring a wheelchair and homeschooling. Nearly 25 years later, the scars remain, but so does Messina's indomitable spirit. This fierce determination is evident in her song selection, which tends to focus on the theme of survival. In her Grammy-nominated tune, she sings, "You gotta roll with the punches / That's the way it goes, you gotta bend when the wind blows / You live, you learn, you crash and burn; it's hit or miss / That's the way it is."

The singer's early years in Nashville bear those lyrics out. She moved to Nashville in 1990 with $1,200 and a Pontiac Sunbird, and spent the next few years cleaning offices and programming software while entering every possible talent contest in town. She eventually landed a spot on the radio show Live at Libby's, where she caught the ear of producer Byron Gallimore.

The pair began working together in 1993, and she soon grew close with another of one Gallimore's acts, Tim McGraw, who himself hadn't yet hit it big. Around this time, Messina played two industry showcases, from which she hoped to land a record deal. "One of them, I was devastated because the record label [representative] said, 'Man, she's great. If she was 10 pounds lighter, I would sign her like that,' and snapped his finger," the 5-foot, 3-inch Messina says. "That is when I realized that forever my weight would be an issue. It's a constant battle, but it's a battle a lot of people have, so it just shows that I'm like everybody else."

The singer's second showcase resulted in a development deal with RCA, but two months later the deal fell through after a management shake-up. Gallimore told Messina he would take her tape to Curb, McGraw's label, but warned her that the company already had one woman on its roster, and that labels don't like signing more than one woman at a time. "Tim said, 'Let me put in a good word,' " Messina recalls. "He always fights for the underdog. I wouldn't have a career if it weren't for him."

Eventually, Curb offered to sign Messina, but only to a four-song deal. "This is part of the story I haven't told until now," she says. "Tim McGraw said, 'Let me tell you something: She deserves a whole record. I'll pay you to cut a whole record on Jo Dee Messina, and if you want the record, you can pay me back.' That is how my first record got made."

Curb agreed to the deal in 1994—by which time McGraw had broken through with "Indian Outlaw"—and released her debut album, coproduced by McGraw and Gallimore, in early '96. (Curb's former GM Phil Gernhard doesn't quite remember events this way. "There was never a four-side deal considered with Jo Dee," he says. "It was always a full go.")

Once released, the disc quickly produced a No. 1 hit, "Heads Carolina, Tails California," followed by the Top 5 "You're Not in Kansas Anymore." But the next two singles stiffed, and it appeared as if Messina would be a two-hit wonder. To make matters worse, touring and employee expenses ended up leaving her $500,000 in debt. Right before Christmas 1997, when she was preparing for the release of her second album, I'm Alright, her advisors urged her to file for bankruptcy. "I said, 'That's like giving up. Let's wait until after the holidays, because Music Row shuts down for the holidays. Let's wait and see what happens.' "

Within the first couple months of the new year, her new single "Bye Bye" had charted, but her management warned that she should still file for bankruptcy, because she had no cash flow. Again, she asked them to wait. Meanwhile, her booking agent, Greg Oswald, scheduled her to play 46 concerts in about six weeks. "It wasn't like this was going to get [me] out of debt," Messina says. "It was like oil in the machine to get it restarted."

It took some time before Messina was able to climb out of her hole: She toured 265 days in 1998 and was hospitalized for exhaustion after 1999's Fan Fair. In the meantime, "Bye Bye" had hit No. 1 and stayed there, as did the next two singles, making Messina the first woman in country-music history to have three consecutive No. 1 records top the charts for more than a week. In 1999, Billboard named her the Most Played Female at Country Radio, she nabbed the CMA's Horizon Award, and ASCAP named "Bye Bye" song of the year. I'm Alright ended up going double platinum, and her current album, Burn, is now approaching platinum. Perhaps more significantly, Messina paid off all her debts last summer.

The singer learned of her first-ever Grammy nomination in the midst of an accounting meeting for her first headlining tour, which will take her to 75 cities. "I want to say I screamed and dropped the phone, but I was so in shock, I didn't know how to respond," she says. "A lot of people will say, 'You worked for it,' but for me, not a single day is taken for granted, because everything that happens is such a gift."