Amy Grant

She married Gary Chapman on June 19, 1982. The couple had three children together. However, they divorced after 16 years of marriage.

She married Vince Gill on March 10, 2000 and the following year, she gave birth to their daughter, Corinna.

Amy Lee Grant was born in Augusta, Georgia and is the youngest of the four sisters born to her parents.

She grew up in a closely-knit family in Nashville, Tennessee and it was her early church-going days that triggered her love for Christian stories, hymns and songs, that would later go on to influence her work.

She attended Harpeth Hall School, where she would regularly perform on stage. When she was a teenager, she taught herself to play the guitar and also worked part-time at a recording studio.

She signed her first recording contract with a Christian music label and eventually, went on to record her self-titled debut album, which was released in 1978. The same year, she gave her debut performance in a jam-packed concert, while she started her first year at Furman University.

In 1979, she met her future husband, Gary Chapman, during her second album-release party for ‘My Father’s Eyes’. The next year, she moved to Vanderbilt University, where she became a member of the Kappa Alpha Theta guild.

She dropped out of college to focus on building a career in music. In 1982, when she released her coming-of-age, breakthrough album, ‘Age to Age’, she rose to fame instantly

She rode high on the success of her album, ‘Age to Age’ and then began to release a string of Christmas albums that would later be used for her holiday concerts. In 1984, she released the Christian album, ‘Straight Ahead’, which had pop nuances.

1985 was a year of perseverance and sheer grit. She wanted to broaden her fan base and was more determined than ever to become the first Christian Pop singer-songwriter and thus, released her album, ‘Unguarded’, which came as a surprise (both, pleasant and rude) to a number of her Christian fans.

In 1988, she released another album, ‘Lead Me On’, which contained a huge list of melodies based on love and Christianity. This album went on to become one of the greatest Contemporary-Christian records of all time.

In 1991, she began to expand into the pop music genre and released the album, ‘Heart in Motion’. Many fans were taken aback by her sudden wish to switch genres and some even frowned upon her choice of music. However, Grant added that she meant to deviate because she wanted to expand her fan base. The album became a hit and she was established as a popular face even in the mainstream world.

‘Amy Grant’, her debut album as a teenager, released in 1977, sold initially only in Christian stores. However, the album became her first magnum opus and it sold 50,000 copies in the first year. Three of the singles from the Christian album made it onto the Christian radio including, ‘What a Difference You’ve Made’, ‘Old Man’s Rubble’ and ‘Beautiful Music’.

In 1988, she released ‘Lead Me On’, which showed her pluck as a contemporary-Christian singer-songwriter. It was ranked as the ‘#1 Christian Album of all time’ by CCM Magazine and has also been featured in ‘WOW #1s: 31 of the Greatest Christian Music Hits Ever’ list. Three of the singles from the album peaked at the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks.