Hillsong United
Hillsong United (stylised as Hillsong UNITED or UNITED) is a contemporary worship collective originating from Hillsong Church. Since forming in 1998 out of the church's youth ministry, the group has released fifteen live albums and six studio albums.
This article is about the band. For the Hillsong Church youth ministry, see Hillsong Church § Hillsong United.
Hillsong United
UNITED
1998–present
- Joel Houston
- Jonathon "JD" Douglass
- Jad Gillies
- Matt Crocker
- Benjamin William Hastings
- Michael Guy Chislett
- Dylan Thomas
- Benjamin Tennikoff
- Jihea Oh
- Dan McMurray
- Taya Gaukrodger
- Reuben Morgan
- Marty Sampson
- Adam Crosariol
- Brooke Fraser
- Annie Garratt
- Sam Knock
- David Ware
- David George
- Peter James
- Kevin Lee
- Peter King
- Timon Klein
- Marcus Beaumont
- Nigel Hendroff
- Nathan Taylor
- Rolf Wam Fjell
- Luke Munns
- Gabriel Kelly
- Brandon Gillies
- Matt Tennikoff
- Hayley Law
- Jill McCloghry
- Tulele Faletolu
- Holly Watson
- Michelle Fragar
- Simon Kobler
History[edit]
Originally called United Live,[5] Hillsong United was formed in 1998, originating from the youth ministry of Hillsong Church called Powerhouse Youth.[6][7] The band released their first live album Everyday after Darlene Zschech—the worship pastor of the church—suggested for them to record their own CDs.[5] Mentored by Zschech in their early years, the band was first led by Reuben Morgan. Joel Houston and Marty Sampson took over the leadership in 2002.[7][8] The official UNITED logo was designed by drummer Luke Munns in 2002 for To the Ends of the Earth.[9]
After several live albums in the 2000s, Hillsong United released their first full studio album All of the Above in 2007.[7]
The band released their third studio album Zion in February 2013. The album debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 and topped Billboard's Top Christian Albums.[10] The album features "Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)", which has been certified 4x Platinum in the U.S.[11] and was awarded Top Christian Song at the 2016 Billboard Music Awards.[12]
In 2014, Hillsong United was nominated for and won five GMA Dove Awards, including Song of the Year for "Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)".[13][14] The band also received its first ever American Music Awards nomination that year, for Favorite Artist – Contemporary Inspirational, but did not win.[15][16] 2015 saw the band nominated for a second consecutive year in the same category at the 43rd edition of the show.[17] It was also nominated for the first time at that year's Billboard Music Awards in the Top Christian Artist and Top Christian Song categories; it won the former.[18] The band was nominated again at the 2016 Billboard Music Awards, and garnered four nods across all three Christian categories, winning its second consecutive Top Christian Artist award, and its first for Top Christian Song with "Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)".[19] The band won two Dove Awards, including Worship Album of the Year, for its fourth studio album Empires, at the 47th Gospel Music Awards held that October.[20] In 2018, the band received four nominations at the 49th GMA Dove Awards including one for Artist of the Year—it won Recorded Worship Song of the Year for its single "So Will I (100 Billion X)".[21][22]
A documentary, Hillsong: Let Hope Rise, directed by Michael John Warren, chronicles the rise of the band,[61] was originally supposed to be released by Warner Bros. during the 2015 Easter weekend.[62] As Alcon Entertainment and Warner Bros. were unable to close a deal, the film was pulled out from Warner Bros' schedule.[63] In March 2015, Relativity Media obtained the distribution rights and the film shifted to a 29 May release.[64] In April, Relativity moved the film to 30 September 2015.[65] However, Relativity Media filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July and let go of the rights to the producers.[66][67] PureFlix acquired the film and it was released on 16 September 2016.