Featured Artist: Steven Curtis Chapman

Aug 01 2011

Steven Curtis Chapman was born in Kentucky on November 21st 1962. Steven's music career started when he moved to Nashville in the 80's. During that time Chapman wrote a song called 'Built to Last', which was recorded by prominent Gospel group The Imperials. The strength of the song prompted him to be signed to a songwriting deal with Sparrow Records, where he rose to prominence. 

It wasn't until 1987 that Steven release his first album 'First Hand'. The album included song 'Weak Days' which peaked at number 2 on the Contemporary Christian Music Chart.

It wasn't long at all until the second album came along, it was the following year in 1988 that he released 'Real Life Conversations' which earned him four more hits, including the number 1 song 'His Eyes'. The song, which was co-written by James Isaac Elliott, earned the Contemporary Recorded Song of the Year award from the Gospel Music Association in 1989. That year he also won a GMA Award for Best Songwriter of the Year. After the success of the first two albums, the releases kept coming. Next came the album 'More To This Life' and For The Sake of the Call. Both of these albums featured several number 1 singles, and were awarded several GMA Awards. The latter also gave Chapman his first Grammy in the Best Pop Gospel Album category.

What followed in the 90's for Steven Curtis Chapman was more mainstream success with many more album releases. The 1992 album 'The Great Adventure' garnered Chapman with two more Grammys, for the album and for the title track video. The success of the album prompted Chapman to record one of his concerts and release it as The Live Adventure, both as a video and a CD. Other albums were made, including Heaven in the Real World, Signs of Life and Speechless.



The album releases didn't stop with the turn of the millennium. In 2001 with the release of Declaration, Chapman got more attention in the Top 200. That album, along with 2003's All About Love, peaked in the Top 15. The follow-up, All Things New, made it to number 22. 

In 2006 Chapman went on tour to several Asian countries. His website says his concert for US troops serving in South Korea was the first Christian concert ever performed for the troops in that country, and a concert in Shanghai, China was "the first public performance by a Gospel recording artist event in the city open to China passport holders," and the third-largest concert in Shanghai that spring. During the same period, his song 'The Blessing' reached number one on Thailand radio charts.

2007 saw Chapman co-headlined Newsong's annual Winter Jam tour with Jeremy Camp. For the tour he brought his sons' band, The Following, out on tour to play as his backing band, along with longtime keyboardist Scott Sheriff. Chapman also released This Moment, which included the hit singles Cinderella and Yours. 

It was in November of 2009 that Steven Curtis Chapman released his seventeenth album Beauty Will Rise. Many of the songs from that album were inspired by the death of his daughter, Maria Sue. Maria Sue Chunxi Chapman died from her injuries and blood loss in an accident on May 21, 2008. The tragic accident happened at home eight days after Maria's 5th birthday. Steven Curtis Chapman describes the songs on that album as his "personal psalms".

This month Steven Curtis Chapman returns with his new album re:creation. The album features five brand new songs from Steven, including the first single 'Do Everything', and all-new recordings of his eight biggest hits including 'For The Sake Of The Call', 'Speechless', 'Heaven In The Real World', 'Dive' and more. Describing the album, the record label said "The title speaks to the actual re:creation of these songs, which are re-imagined and re-recorded in a new musical space. More and most importantly though, the word re:creation speaks to the new life God is creating... re-creating... for Steven and his family as they walk forward in their lives."

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