Bio: A huge influence on the development of modern gospel music, Grant’s perennially youthful but always convincing vocal has imbued her many recordings with a purity of spirit and performance that can be awe-inspiring. Songs such as ‘Angels’, ‘Raining On The Inside’ and ‘Find A Way’, scattered through a consistently high-quality recording career, have endeared her to her massive contemporary and gospel audience as well as critics. Though originally a primarily religious performer, her material also blends in rhythms derived from modern R&B and soul, while her lyrics contemplate subjects outside of the average gospel singer’s repertoire. However, when secular subjects are tackled, there is an abiding spirituality to Grant’s treatment of them that ensures her position as a gospel singer despite her R&B success: ‘The point of my songs is never singer-focused. It’s experience focused. When I go in the studio, I’m taking my experience as a wife and a mother with me.’
Though earlier albums had flirted with pop, rock, soul and country, and Grant enjoyed a US number 1 single as far back as 1986, duetting with Peter Cetera on ‘The Next Time I Fall’, Grant’s first truly secular release arrived in 1991 with Heart In Motion. Featuring the US number 1/UK number 2 single ‘Baby Baby’, this move into the contemporary pop world was rewarded with platinum sales, the album spending 52 consecutive weeks on the US Billboard chart. Subsequent singles carried on Grant’s commercial renaissance, with ‘Every Heartbeat’ (number 2), ‘That’s What Love Is For’ (number 7), and ‘Good For Me’ (number 8) all breaking into the US Top 10 in 1991-92. Long-term collaborators Keith Thomas and Michael Omartian were again in place for the follow-up, House Of Love. Boosted by a strong duet with Vince Gill on the title track and the presence of another hit single, ‘Lucky One’, this collection also included a cover version of the Joni Mitchell standard, ‘Big Yellow Taxi’.
Grant took a giant leap in credibility with Behind The Eyes in 1997. This was an album of much greater depth that dispelled the perception of her as merely a vacuous pop diva. In March 2000, Grant married Vince Gill. In the new millennium, Grant began to gravitate back towards inspirational material, releasing two collections of old-time hymns and religious songs (2002’s Legacy: Hymns & Faith and 2005’s Rock Of Ages... Hymns & Faith). In between these two releases Grant completed the pop album, Simple Things.
Amy Grant "Winter Wonderland"
Learn more about this artist's Christmas hits by clicking on the song titles below.
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