Amy Lee Grant, born on November 25, 1960, is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. She met with an accident while riding her bicycle at a Nashville Park on July 27, 2022.
She began in contemporary Christian music (CCM) before crossing over to pop music in the 1980s and 1990s. She has been referred to as “The Queen of Christian Pop”.
As of 2009 she had sold more than 30 million albums worldwide, won six Grammy Awards, 22 Gospel Music Association Dove Awards, and her album was the first Christian album to go platinum. She was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2006 for her contributions to the entertainment industry and in 2022, she was announced as a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors.
Also read: What happened to Amy Grant? Popular Christian Pop singer hospitalised after bike accident
Grant made her debut as a teenager, rising to prominence in Christian music in the 1980s with hits like Father’s Eyes, El Shaddai, and Angels. She began extending her following in the mid-1980s and quickly became one of the first CCM performers to cross over into mainstream music on the heels of her hit albums Unguarded and Lead Me On.
The Next Time I Fall, a collaboration with Peter Cetera, became her first Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single in 1986. In 1991, she released her best-selling album to date, Heart in Motion, which topped the Billboard Christian album chart for 32 weeks, sold five million copies in the United States and produced her second No. 1 pop single Baby Baby as well as three top ten Billboard Hot 100 singles: That’s What Love Is For, Every Heartbeat, and Good for Me.
Also read: Christopher Nolan, Cillian Murphy epic Oppenheimer teaser released: Watch
She is the author of numerous publications, including a biography, Mosaic: Pieces of My Life So Far, and a book based on her co-written Christmas hymn Breath of Heaven (Mary’s Song).
Grant married fellow Christian musician Gary Chapman on June 19, 1982. Their union resulted in three children. She filed for divorce from Chapman in March 1999, citing “irreconcilable differences,” and the divorce was finalised three months later.
Grant married country singer-songwriter Vince Gill on March 10, 2000, after previously marrying country singer Janis Oliver of Sweethearts of the Rodeo. Corrina Grant Gill, Grant and Gill’s daughter, was born on March 12, 2001.
Also read: The Mega Millions jackpot surged to $1.02 billion: Here’s why
Grant explains why she left Chapman and married Gill in the November 1999 issue of CCM Magazine: “I didn’t get a divorce because ‘I had a great marriage and then along came Vince Gill.’ Gary and I had a rocky road from day one. I think what was so hard—and this is (what) one of our counselors said—sometimes an innocent party can come into a situation, and they’re like a big spotlight. What they do is reveal, by comparison, the painful dynamics that are already in existence.”
Grant underwent cardiac surgery in June 2020 to treat partial anomalous pulmonary venous return (PAPVR), a congenital heart disorder.