Born on the 25th of November 1960, Amy Grant hails from Augusta, Georgia, USA. She is one of the most successful Christian pop singers of all time, with two Billboard Hot 100 number one singles, six Grammy Awards and 30 million record sales to her name.
It’s just as well that Grant is specifically one of the most successful Christian singers of all time because there is most definitely a higher power at work when it comes to her career. This is absolutely not to say that she’s not good enough or that she hasn’t earned it, mind you, but the story is pretty fairy tale-esque.
I mean, to get your first record deal by having a song, the very first song you’ve ever written for that matter, played over the phone to the head of a record label before your sixteenth birthday? That’s some God given talent right there.
The year after that, she recorded her debut album “Amy Grant”. The year after that, a single month before her high school graduation, it was released and before she’d even performed her debut ticketed concert, it charted in the top twenty of the Billboard Inspirational Albums chart.
Arguably, this would be more than enough for most seventeen year olds of the time to put the music on hold until at least after college, but this wasn’t to be the case for Grant. She chose both, enrolling at Furman University and starting work on her second album, “My Father’s Eyes”, an album which would go on to give her a Christian number one hit with the title track and her first Grammy nomination.
This success, combined with her and her co-songwriter and first husband Gary Chapman’s growing touring schedule, made her drop out of college to focus on music full time. She’s since gone on to release many more studio albums and countless singles, including a slightly baffling top five hit on the Hot Club Dance charts in 2014 with a remix of her song “Baby Baby”.
Clearly, to pigeonhole Amy Grant as a “Christian” singer does a disservice to her appeal and her talent. Her music might be inspired by her faith, but it can go on to inspire anyone open minded enough to listen.
Dylan Gossett
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