Taylor Hicks

Born to a guitar teaching father, the Paducah, Kentucky-native Steven Curtis Chapman, grew up jamming and singing with his dad before enrolling at Georgetown College in Kentucky. It wasn’t long however before Chapman dropped out to pursue a music career, moved to Nashiville, Tennessee, and worked on a music show at Opryland USA. Having honed his skills as a songwriter during this time Chapman subsequently penned the song “Built to Last”, which was later recorded by the popular gospel group The Imperials. The success of which led to Chapman signing with Sparrow Records, and writing songs for the likes of Sandi Patty, Billy Dean, Glen Campbell, and Roger Whittaker.

In 1997 Chapman released his debut album “First Hand”, the lead single of which “Weak Days” charted at No. Two on the contemporary Christian singles chart. A year later the follow-up “Real Life Conversations” spawned four more hits including the No. One “His Eyes”, which went on to win the Contemporary Recorded Song of the Year award from the Gospel Music Association. This was however the beginning of an illustrious and award winning career for Chapman that would see the singer-songwriter win five Grammy awards, 58 Gospel Music Association Dove Awards, including seven “Artist of the Year” awards. In 1990 Chapman released his third album “More to This Life”, spawning four No. One hits, succeeded by the Grammy-winning “For the Sake of the Call” in 1990.

With the purchase of Sparrow Records by EMI/Liberty, there was a push for Chapman to appeal to a broader audience, and his subsequent Gold-certified album “The Great Adventure” was representative of this. “Heaven in the Real World” was issued in 1994, followed by “Signs of Life” in 1996, “Speechless” in 1999, “Declaration” in 2001, and “All Abut Love” in 2003. After also releasing a string of Christmas albums and contributing the songs “All About Love”, “Dive”, and “Live Out Loud” to the Christian video game “Dance Praise”, Chapman toured large parts of Asia including a 2007 show for the U.S. troops in South Korea.

Also in 2007 the singer-songwriter released his twelfth studio album “This Moment”, which produced the hits “Cindarella” and “Yours”. A year later, after having his name added to the Nashville Walk of Fame, the songwriter released “Beauty Will Rise”, followed by “re:creation”, a tribute to Chapman’s daughter who had unexpectedly died. “Deep Roots” followed in 2013, along with the full-length “The Glorious Unfolding”, which peaked at No. 27 on the Billboard 200.