I don't know what keeps me going. Sometimes I wonder... I think it's just pure perseverance and wanting to succeed and having that burning desire to always have success.

As the 80s progressed Tucker continued to add the Outlaw qualities to her hits. Her contribution to the country music genre was rewarded when the Country Music Association voted her the "Female Vocalist of the Year" in 1991 though Tanya Tucker missed the event having just given birth to her second child. Tucker's third single "What's Your Mama's Name" became her first number one hit in the spring of 1973.

She has had several successful albums several Country Music Association award nominations and hit songs such as 1973's "What's Your Mama's Name?" and "Blood Red and Goin' Down" 1975's "Lizzie and the Rainman" and 1988's "Strong Enough to Bend". Over the succeeding decades Tucker became one of the few child performers to mature into adulthood without losing her audience and during the course of her career Tanya Tucker notched a streak of Top 10 and Top 40 hits.