A Texas-based CCM singer/songwriter known for his wide-ranging fusion of pop, rock, folk, electronic, bluegrass, and hip-hop, David Crowder rose to success in the early 2000s as the leader of the praise & worship group David Crowder Band. Over the next decade, the band racked up numerous Dove Awards for their inspirational rock sound, releasing popular albums like Illuminate (2003), Remedy (2007), and Give Us Rest (2012). Rebranding in 2012 simply as Crowder, the singer launched an equally successful, though more stylistically varied, solo career with 2014's Top Ten-charting Neon Steeple. While no stranger to the top of the Christian albums chart, he had his first Billboard Hot Christian Songs number one with "Good God Almighty" from his fourth long-player, 2021's Milk & Honey.

Crowder first stepped into the music industry when he realized that over half of the students at Baylor University, a Christian school that he attended in Waco, Texas, were not going to church. He began to actively recruit students for worship services and started writing songs to draw in more young people. He eventually started releasing the songs, leading to his debut album, 2002's Can You Hear Us? The album was released under the name David Crowder Band, as Crowder was joined by guitarists Jack Parker and Jason Solley, drummer Jeremy Bush, bassist Mike Dodson, and electric violinist Mike Hogan. Their sophomore effort, Illuminate, appeared in the fall of 2003 and was followed a year later by The Lime CD, which comprised two earlier live releases (The Green CD and The Yellow CD) that had been given out to fans who had either pre-ordered prior albums or attended various release parties.

Sunsets & Sushi appeared in early 2005 before the band's next studio album, the bluegrass-tinged A Collision, was issued that September. A spinoff of the latter album entitled B Collision, came out a year later and focused even more on the group's immersion into bluegrass. Remedy saw release in 2007, followed by Church Music in 2009. Their third straight Christian number one, it climbed to number 11 on the Billboard 200. A four-song EP, Summer Happiness, featuring acoustic versions of songs from Church Music, appeared in 2010. Arriving in 2012, Give Us Rest; Or, A Requiem Mass in C (The Happiest of All Keys) was David Crowder Band's sixth and final studio album. It went all the way to number two on the U.S. album chart.

It was followed in 2014 by Crowder's solo debut, Neon Steeple, which arrived under the moniker Crowder. The album brought continued chart success, topping the Christian chart and reaching number nine on the Billboard Top 200 as well as earning a Grammy nomination for his song "Come as You Are." He followed up in September 2016 with American Prodigal, another Christian number one; it peaked at 12 on the Billboard 200. Collaborating with Tauren Wells, Crowder landed a hit with the non-album single "All My Hope" in 2017. Continuing to branch out into a variety of musical styles, he issued I Know a Ghost in 2018, which pulled from electronic, bluegrass, and hip-hop influences. A Top Christian Albums number two, guests on that set included Wells and Mandisa. Maverick City Music joined him on pair of tracks from his fourth Crowder full-length and third Christian number one Milk & Honey. Released in 2021, it included the hit "Good God Almighty," his first single to top the Hot Christian Songs chart. ~ Bradley Torreano

One of the most commercially successful contemporary Christian and gospel vocalists of the late 2000s and early 2010s, Mandisa, born Mandisa Lynn Hundley in 1976, grew up in Sacramento, California. She sang in her church and eventually studied vocal performance at American River College. Later, she continued her musical studies at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, where she was a member of the Fisk Jubilee Singers. After college, Mandisa found work as a session and backup vocalist for such name artists as Trisha Yearwood and Shania Twain. In 2006, she competed on the fifth season of American Idol and gained a following through performances of Alicia Keys' "Fallin'," Chaka Khan's "I'm Every Woman," and Mary Mary's "Shackles (Praise You)."

After her elimination from American Idol, Mandisa quickly plugged herself into the contemporary Christian and gospel markets. In early 2007, she appeared with Kirk Franklin on tobyMac's Portable Sounds. Later that year, she released her debut album, True Beauty, on which she was joined by the Fisk Jubilee Singers and tobyMac. It topped Billboard's Top Christian Albums chart. She followed it with a holiday recording, It's Christmas, and released her second proper studio album, the Grammy-nominated Freedom, in 2009. Her output became less gospel-oriented, rooted more in straight-ahead CCM. What If We Were Real, released in 2011, was also nominated for a Grammy, while 2013's Overcomer took the award for Best Contemporary Christian Music Album. Out of the Dark arrived four years later, following a deep depression precipitated by the death of a close friend. Mandisa died on April 19, 2024, at the age of 47. ~ Matt Collar & Andy Kellman