AMY GRANT

From Ministry to Mainstream

The gears of Grant’s career shifted in 1985 when she set out to be the first Christian musician to see success in the mainstream pop scene. The release of her album Unguarded saw this dream come to fruition. She continued to experiment with her widened audience in her next album Lead Me On. In 1991, Christian fans of Grant frowned upon her efforts to crack the mainstream due to toeing the line of what many still considered ‘ministry’ at the time. Most notably from the album, her single Baby Baby, written about her daughter Millie, hit the Billboard 100 at #1. Four other hits from the album made top 20 in the pop charts. Grant continued in the pop scene, creating hit after hit and collaborating with many popular names in the industry, including 1-cc, Jessica Simpson, and Gladys Knight. During this period, she signed with Interscope Records.

Coming Home to Hymns

Grant eventually returned to her country gospel roots in 2002, releasing an album of hymns. Soon after, in 2003, with the release of Simple Things, Grant parted ways with Interscope and Word to sign with EMI records where she re-recorded her albums as remastered releases. In 2008, she was one of many devastated musicians to witness their recording material go up in flames due to the fire at Universal Studios. Grant returned to the music scene in 2010 to release her 20th album How Mercy Looks from Here. Her latest release was a Christmas album in 2016 entitled Tennessee Christmas, which was welcomed by both Christian and non-Christian fans.

The Maelstrom of Marriage and Media

In the maelstrom that was Grant’s career as an artist, she also saw her personal life become difficult. Her marriage to Gary Chapman was an unhappy one, with Grant finally breaking things off in March 1999. In the divorce, she described the reason for splitting as ‘irreconcilable differences’. Just one year later, she married legendary country musician, Vince Gill. Grant and Gill have one daughter with each other, Corrina, who was born in 2001. Grant’s divorce and remarriage was a public spectacle for all to see and caused her public perception, particularly as a musician in the Christian sphere, to diminish somewhat. The public commentators would describe her as broken, foul-mouthed, and too mainstream for ministry. Many marked her as too sexy and worldly to be a faithful Jesus follower. However Grant is viewed as a musician or a Christian, what can’t be denied is the success of her 21 studio album releases and countless awards both in Christian and mainstream music. Grant really is, the artist of the century.