Steven Curtis Chapman

Chapman began his career in the late 1980s as a songwriter and performer of contemporary Christian music and became the artist in Christian music with the most awards releasing over 25 albums. He has also won five Grammy awards and 59 Gospel Music Association Dove Awards, more than any other artist in history. His seven "Artist of the Year" Dove Awards are also an industry record.^[1] As of 2014, Chapman has sold more than 10 million albums^[2] and has 10 RIAA-certified Gold or Platinum albums.^[3]

History[edit]

Steven Curtis Chapman was born to Judy and Herb Chapman in Paducah, Kentucky, on November 21, 1962.^[4] Steven's father is a guitar teacher and owns a music store in Paducah; Steven and his older brother Herb Jr. grew up playing the guitar and singing.


After graduating from high school, Chapman enrolled as a pre-med student at Georgetown College in Kentucky. After several semesters he transferred to Anderson College in Indiana for a short time, but then dropped out. He went to Nashville to pursue a career in music. While in Nashville he briefly attended Belmont University. He began working at an Opryland USA music show while being involved in songwriting.^[5][6]


In the 1980s, Chapman wrote a song called "Built to Last", which was recorded by prominent gospel group the Imperials. The success of the song landed him a songwriting deal with Sparrow Records; he rose to prominence there. By 2007, artists like Sandi Patty, Billy Dean, Glen Campbell, the Cathedral Quartet and Roger Whittaker had recorded Chapman's songs.^[5]


In 1987, Chapman released his first album, First Hand. The album included the song "Weak Days", which peaked at No. 2 on the Contemporary Christian Music chart. In 1988, he followed with his second album, Real Life Conversations, earning him four more hits including the No. 1 song "His Eyes". The song, which was co-written with James Isaac Elliott, earned the Contemporary Recorded Song of the Year award from the Gospel Music Association in 1989. In the same year, he also won a GMA Award for Songwriter of the Year.


Next Chapman released more albums including More to This Life and For the Sake of the Call. These albums featured several No. 1 singles and were awarded several GMA Awards. The latter gave Chapman his first Grammy in the Best Pop Gospel Album category. These achievements strengthened his position in the Christian music scene.^[5]


In 1992, Chapman made a successful shift into a more mainstream audience with his album The Great Adventure. The album garnered Chapman two more Grammys, for the album and for the title track video, again in gospel categories. After Sparrow Records was purchased by EMI/Liberty, they began to market the album to a broader audience pushing it to gold status in 1993. 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. This continuation won Chapman more GMA Awards, and also a new award from American Songwriter magazine for Songwriter and Artist of the Year.^[5]


Chapman continued to have success with the albums Heaven in the Real World, Signs of Life, and Speechless. In 2000, he provided the voice of Baloo in The Jungle Book Groove Party and reprised the role 22 years later in Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers.^[7] In 2001 with the release of Declaration, Chapman got more attention in the Billboard 200. That album along with 2003's All About Love, peaked in the Top 15. The follow-up, All Things New, peaked at No. 22.^[5]


Chapman has also released four Christmas albums, beginning with 1995's The Music of Christmas. In 2003 he released Christmas Is All in the Heart exclusively through Hallmark Gold Crown Stores and in 2005, he released All I Really Want for Christmas and finally Joy was released in 2012. Chapman has been a frequent guest performer at Walt Disney World, and has been a guest narrator for Disney's Candlelight Processional, most recently appearing in 2016, 2019, and 2021.^[8]


In 2006, Chapman toured several Asian countries. His website said that his concert for U.S. 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.^[9] He went to Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Singapore on the tour. During the time, his song "The Blessing" reached No. 1 on Thailand radio charts.


In 2007, Chapman co-headlined NewSong's annual Winter Jam tour with Jeremy Camp. For the tour, he brought his sons' band, Colony House, 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", in October 2007. "Cinderella" was chosen for WOW Hits 2009. On April 20, 2008, Chapman was awarded a star on Nashville's Walk of Fame for his contributions in Christian music. On November 3, 2009, Chapman released his seventeenth album Beauty Will Rise. Many of the songs from this album are inspired by the death of his daughter, Maria Sue. He claims that the songs on the album are his "personal psalms". Chapman, his wife, and two sons have a tattoo of the flower that Maria drew before her untimely death.


In August 2012, Chapman announced his departure from Sparrow Records and that he had signed with Sony Music's Provident Label Group.^[10] He released his fourth Christmas album, JOY, on October 16, 2012.^[11] Deep Roots was released exclusively through Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. on March 11, 2013.^[12] In September 2013, Reunion Records released Chapman's eighteenth album (the second with Reunion Records), The Glorious Unfolding, which is also his first studio album in seven years that features completely original material.^[13] The album received critical acclaim, with many critics ranking it among his other chart-topping albums. The album peaked at No. 27 on the US Billboard 200.^[14]


From September 2014 until September 2017, Chapman hosted the Sam's Place: Music for the Spirit concert series at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville and featured performances including MercyMe, Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, and Third Day.^[15] In 2015, Chapman released "Warrior" as the official song for the soundtrack to War Room.^[16][17] "Amen", was sent to Christian AC radio on October 6, 2015.^[18] In 2019, Chapman released the sequel to his Billboard Bluegrass #1 Album Deep Roots entitled Deeper Roots: Where the Bluegrass Grows, which also peaked #1 on the Billboard Bluegrass charts.^[19]

Activism and charity work[edit]

In the late 1990s, Chapman became involved in youth violence prevention efforts following the 1997 Heath High School shooting at his alma mater in West Paducah.^[40] He dedicated a song, "With Hope", from his 1999 album, Speechless, to the families who lost someone in the shooting.^[41] In addition, he was asked to sing at the joint funeral held for the three victims. Chapman later gave a memorial concert and joined Charles Colson and others in creating a video designed to sensitize teenagers to the signs of serious violence planning among peers and to encourage them to report plans that are told to them.^[42]


In 2009, Show Hope finished building Maria's Big House of Hope, a medical care center in China that provides holistic care to orphans with special needs. Maria's Big House of Hope is also dedicated to the memory of the late Maria Sue Chunxi Chapman. Also in 2009, Steven Chapman and Mary Beth Chapman received the Children's Champion Award from the charitable organization Children's Hunger Fund for their work with Show Hope. In September 2011, Chapman and his wife were awarded the Congressional Angels in Adoption award by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI) in Washington, D.C.^[43]


Chapman also has promoted the international charity World Vision for at least a decade, serving as spokesman for Project Restore, its program serving the U.S. Gulf Coast region in recovery from Hurricane Katrina, in cooperation with the Gospel Music Association. He has occasionally traveled to Uganda to help with the problem of street children, and to help orphans and adoption organizations. He has played at local churches, including KPC (Kampala Pentecostal Church) in Kampala.


In 2020, Chapman was a featured guest at Keith & Kristyn Getty's Sing! Global 2020 Conference designed to train music leaders and instill the importance of solid doctrine and Gospel saturated lyrics in Christian music.^[44]