Artists
Worship pop · LyonGloriousGlorious is the pioneer of French-language “worship pop.” The band was born in Valence in the early 2000s, led by the Pouzin brothers, after returning from the World Youth Day in Rome, an experience that changed their lives. Inspired by English-language worship music, they set out to offer French speakers songs of adoration with the sound of modern pop: guitars, synths, and choruses that stick with you from the first listen.4 songs →Church worship · BordeauxMomentum MusiqueMomentum Musique is the worship ministry of Église Momentum, based in Lormont, near Bordeaux, and present in Paris since 2024. Under the leadership of senior pastor Patrice Martorano and with the regular involvement of worship leader Dan Luiten, the team writes and records its songs at the heart of the church's services: most of their tracks are captured live, carried by the congregation.4 songs →Church worship · Montrealla Chapelle MusiqueLa Chapelle Musique is the musical expression of église la Chapelle, in Montreal. Their songs grow out of the seasons their community goes through: each track is an honest attempt to put into melody what they believe, what they live, and what they hope for. Before being sung, the words are first lived out.4 songs →Contemporary worship · ParisHillsong en FrançaisHillsong en Français began in 2012, when Hillsong Paris joined the international Hillsong Music team to record the French version of the Global Project, an initiative that translated Hillsong Church's songs into nine languages on the same day, September 18, 2012. The project isn't a band in the traditional sense: it is the French-language music ministry of Hillsong Church, the Pentecostal church founded in Sydney in 1983. Since that first album, about fifteen more records have followed, up to “Ce nom si merveilleux,” released in 2023.3 songs →Evangelical worship · MontrealLuc DumontLuc Dumont was born in 1969 in Montreal. As a teenager, he attended a conference by David Wilkerson and became a born-again Christian. Taken under the wing of pastor Claude Houde in Saint-Hubert, he wrote his first song in 1985 and performed at the Festival de Louange in 1987, before studying theology at the Institut biblique Bérée in Montreal. His first album, Jamais plus je n'oublierai, came out in 1991, marking the start of a worship ministry that would take him from church to church across the French-speaking world.3 songs →Contemporary worship · BordeauxDan LuitenDan Luiten grew up in Dunkirk, in the north of France, in a family of musicians: he was already singing hymns with his guitar-playing father at the age of three, before learning the saxophone and then the piano. He became a Christian in 1996 and founded the worship band Sortie de Secours with friends at Église évangélique du Littoral, in Dunkirk. In 2001, he left with his wife Alice to study theology at the Institut biblique de Montréal, then joined Église Nouvelle Vie in Longueuil, Quebec, as a musician and worship leader.3 songs →Pop rock worship · BrusselsEXOIn 1987, Americans Chris and Laura Christensen, both graduates of the Wheaton College Conservatory of Music, left the United States for Europe and settled in Brussels. Eight years later, this move gave birth to a worship ministry that became a reference point in French-speaking churches: EXO, a Greek name meaning "out of," expressing a worship that overflows beyond the walls of the church.3 songs →Worship and teaching · LausanneSylvain FreymondSylvain Freymond is a Swiss teacher and worship leader, a graduate of the Lausanne Conservatory. The louange vivante concept was born in 1981 at the Lausanne Easter Convention and has continued without interruption ever since. Since 1989, he has served full-time with Jeunesse en Mission (JEM), an international and interdenominational missionary organization, where he now directs JEM éditions in Pomy and the house of worship in Yverdon, Switzerland.3 songs →Christian rock · Montbéliard, Franche-ComtéAntydotIt all begins with David Prigent's conversion at age 17, in the Montbéliard area. Other young musicians from local churches gathered around him, including from Église de la Prairie, wanting to speak to their generation in the musical language they knew: rap and beatmaking, mixed with rock guitar. Out of this encounter, the band Antydot was born around 2000.3 songs →Worship pop · Charente, FranceBe WitnessBe Witness was born in 2013 in Charente, when Clément Bluteau and Timothée Masurel decided to put their music at the service of worship. The band's name, which means "be a witness," sums up their project: singing their faith with current pop sounds to reach a generation used to contemporary music. In 2015 and 2016, the duo benefited from the mentoring of the Worship Academy in Lyon, a period that shaped their songwriting for years to come.3 songs →Afro-Caribbean gospel · Dakar, SenegalBernard CissaBernard Cissa grew up in Dakar in an animist family before coming to Christian faith in 1995. He already had a career in African secular music when he chose to put his talent at the service of his new conviction. This turning point gave rise to a style all his own: joyful, rhythmic songs, carried by mbalax colors and Caribbean influences, with lyrics in French and Wolof.3 songs →Gospel worship · Yvelines (France)Carine OrhemaBorn to a Congolese father and a Gabonese mother, Carine Orhema grew up in the Yvelines in a family of singers. She started singing in high school, at 17, before joining a funk band and then singing backup for several R&B artists. For more than ten years, she directed a gospel choir in the Paris region, shaping her voice and her vision of community worship.3 songs →Christian worship · BelgiumChristine et ToninoSince their marriage in 1995, Christine and Tonino have shared their faith through songs, writings, and Bible teachings aimed at the French speaking Church. In 2009, they founded Charis Création, a Belgian non profit association, to make part of their productions freely available and to support charitable works.3 songs →Collective worship · FranceCollectif Cieux OuvertsCollectif Cieux Ouverts was born in 2014 out of a desire to worship God beyond denominational boundaries. Built around Samuel Olivier and Elisa Valbon, it brings together musicians, singers, technicians, and dancers from different Christian backgrounds, with a shared goal: to give the French speaking church accessible worship songs, centered on God and designed to be sung together as a community.3 songs →Gospel and worship · Ivory CoastConstanceConstance Aman began singing in her church choirs in Ivory Coast as a teenager, after accepting the Christian faith at fifteen and then being baptized in 1985. A year later, she joined the musical ensemble of the Ligue pour la Lecture de la Bible. Her career officially began in 1989 with a first duet album, "L'Humanité est troublée", alongside Ivorian artist Mathieu Bédé, before she went solo two years later.2 songs →Worship · Paris (France)Corinne LafitteCorinne Lafitte began her musical career in Paris directing the choir "Le Point du Jour". In 1982, she recorded with them the record "Nous te louons", a landmark that marked the beginnings of worship in French and laid the groundwork for a style that would shape French speaking churches for decades.3 songs →Christian pop · BelgiumCrazy HopeCrazy Hope was born in 2015 in Belgium, carried by five young artists who shared the same dream: to tell of their Christian faith through pop songs. The group's name reflects the project itself, a bit crazy, of making Christian music accessible to everyone, far from the sometimes closed off codes of the genre. Their stated ambition is to bring believers and non believers together around authentic, quality pop music.3 songs →Pop rock worship · Southern FranceDaniel PialatDaniel Pialat began his career as artistic director at Master Music, where he initiated several albums and musical shows carried by New Gospel Family, a contemporary gospel group bringing together nearly a hundred choir singers. This experience took him onto major stages in France, Belgium, Switzerland, and the French Antilles, including venues such as the Olympia, the Arènes de Nîmes, the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy, and the Palais des Congrès in Paris.3 songs →French-language evangelical worship · United States (Nashville)David DurhamDavid Durham began his career as a backup vocalist in the United States, alongside well-known Christian artists such as Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith. This time in the studios and on the stages of American contemporary christian music gave him a solid musical foundation, before he took a different path: he left as a missionary to Europe, where he would spend about twelve years learning French and serving in French-speaking churches.3 songs →Christian worship · Saint-Malo, BrittanyDavid HermyDavid Hermy is a worship singer originally from Lille, now living in the Saint-Malo area of Brittany, where he lives with his wife Catherine and their four children. It is also there that he hosts "Le live de David Hermy," a show on Radio Parole de Vie, the local Christian radio station in the Saint-Malo region.3 songs →Family worship · AlsaceDen-IsaDen-Isa is the duo formed by Denis and Isabelle Hey, originally from Wissembourg in Alsace. Coming from believing families, Catholic for Denis and Lutheran Protestant for Isa, they converted to Christ in 1980 through contact with young Mennonite Christians. After marrying in 1982 and settling in the Paris area, they trained in theology at the Institut Biblique de Nogent-sur-Marne between 1984 and 1987, while also taking singing lessons and, for Denis, studying jazz.3 songs →Intimate worship · QuebecÉmilie CharetteÉmilie Charette discovered God's presence from childhood and began music at age twelve, playing piano and singing in the choir. At fourteen, she got involved in her local church's worship ministry in Quebec. In 2001, she met the man who would become her husband, Samuel Béland, whom she married in 2004: at nineteen, in 2003, she released her first solo recording.3 songs →Christian pop-rock · MontaubanEssencielEssenciel is a French evangelical Christian worship band founded by Gérard Donnadieu, a member of the Assemblées de Dieu church of Montauban, in the Tarn-et-Garonne region. In 2020, he released the band's first album, Une foi sans faille, written with musician Mathieu Pothin, who also handled the arrangement and production under his label Ethnos Music. The record features ten songs carried by a pop-rock sound with varied influences, including six original compositions and four French adaptations of songs by the Canadian band Downhere.3 songs →Worship for children and families · French-speaking SwitzerlandFabricants de JoieFabricants de Joie was born in 1984 in French-speaking Switzerland, at the initiative of Louise Neuenschwander, within the King's Kids movement, launched in 1976 in Hawaii by missionaries Dale and Carol Kauffman. Linked to Youth With A Mission, this ministry was designed from the outset to give children and young people an active role in mission, rather than treating them as mere spectators of church life.3 songs →Piano-vocal worship · FranceGauthier KululaGauthier Kulula has been writing, singing, and arranging his worship songs for more than a decade, first in the service of his local church, where he trained worship teams and wrote his earliest songs. His personal YouTube channel bears the mark of those beginnings, with videos published as early as 2014, such as "Celui que mon cœur chante."3 songs →Celtic and Hebraic worship · FranceHélène GoussebayleHélène Goussebayle wrote her first song at 17. For her, singing is one of the most natural ways to be with God, to speak to him but also to listen to him: a definition that runs through her whole body of work, made of prayer set to music rather than performance. Since then, she has worked as an author, composer, singer, and artistic director on her own albums and on other projects.3 songs →Worship pop rock · Greater Paris areaHorizon LouangeHorizon Louange was born within a local church in the greater Paris area, Église Horizon, as a team of musicians leading the community in worship every Sunday. The band describes itself as young and passionate, driven by the conviction that worship, through song, can support moral, social, and spiritual transformation.3 songs →Pop and electro worship · FranceJérémy BesnardJérémy Besnard grew up in Brittany in a family of six children deeply involved in church life, especially in music. At 18, he spent a year in Los Angeles, where he led worship for the first time and learned to play bass. In 2012, during a trip with Youth With A Mission, he felt called to devote his life to a worship ministry. He then settled in Bordeaux, where he spent six years at Église Momentum alongside Dan Luiten and Patrice Martorano, who trained him in songwriting, leading worship, and theology.3 songs →Christian song · French-speaking SwitzerlandJude 25Born in French-speaking Switzerland in 1978, Jude 25 is one of the oldest French-speaking Christian music ministries still active today. The group started as a family adventure, bringing together several couples around a shared desire: to sing their faith and share it beyond the walls of the church. Over the decades, the lineup evolved, bringing in the Fontaine family's children before narrowing, from the 2000s onward, to the duo formed by Dominique and Elsbeth Fontaine, who today carry on the original ministry alone.3 songs →Live community worship · French-speaking SwitzerlandLouange vivanteLouange vivante is not a fixed group but a concept: for each recording, a hundred different people, volunteer musicians, singers, and dancers, make themselves available to serve French-speaking worship and Youth With A Mission (JEM). The project was born in 1981 at the Lausanne Easter Convention, initiated by Sylvain Freymond, and has never stopped since: from 1989 onward, the first recordings were released on CD by JEM éditions.3 songs →Christian worship (soul, pop) · SwitzerlandLouise ZbindenLouise Zbinden grew up in Switzerland with an early passion for singing. As a teenager, she began composing and singing in churches, weddings, and concerts, before leaving to study musicology at the University of Grenoble. That's where her calling took a more professional turn: in 2009, she joined the vocal group Sista as a composer, arranger, and performer on piano and vocals on the album "Tu es à moi."3 songs →Christian rap · Cameroon / FranceManou BolomikManou Bolomik, whose real name is Emmanuel Bolomik Akoua, was born on November 18, 1980, in Yaoundé, Cameroon. A rebellious teenager, he discovered rap in his home country and took part in his first street competitions with the group Archangélik, before undergoing a conversion at sixteen that would redirect his entire path. In 1999, he moved to France, where he earned a master's degree in law and economics from the University of Pau in 2004, then began studying theology.3 songs →Christian pop · FranceMarie GautierMarie Gautier recorded her first album at just 17 years old. As a songwriter, she writes the lyrics and music for her own songs, which she most often performs on guitar or piano, sometimes alone, sometimes with musicians and backing vocalists. Her voice, described as both powerful and warm, carries songs centered on the testimony of her faith.3 songs →Worship pop, contemporary gospel · LyonMatt MarvaneMatt Marvane grew up straddling two worlds: that of his father's church, where his father was a pastor, and that of music, which he discovered at the piano from the age of six. He gave his first public concerts at ten, started a gospel choir at seventeen, then founded the group JTM Band at twenty-two, which went on to play more than three hundred concerts across Europe and Canada until 2012. This collective experience laid the groundwork for a musical ministry he would go on to pursue solo.3 songs →Gospel · Kinshasa (DRC)Nana LukezoNana Lukezo was born in Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, into a family of musicians: her brother, father, and grandfather are musicians too, and she is the second of seven children. She was noticed as early as age 7 in the choirs of her Christian community, then honed her craft as a backing vocalist and lead singer in several Parisian gospel choirs before launching out as a singer-songwriter.3 songs →Christian song and worship · FrancePaul-OlivierPaul-Olivier, whose real name is Olivier Pluquet, grew up surrounded by music long before becoming a familiar face on the French Christian scene. He cut his teeth as a tenor and soloist within the Continentals Singers, an international choir that has trained many young Christian singers, then opened for artists such as François Feldman, Exo, Master Musique, and New Gospel Family. He also worked as a backing vocalist alongside international worship figures such as Graham Kendrick and Ron Kenoly, before launching a solo career with the album Traces in 1992.2 songs →Worship · brotherly trioPhideliaPhidelia was born in December 2020 out of the musical meeting of three brothers, who until then had been used to writing songs for their respective families' gatherings, each involved in his own local church. What began as a private practice turned into a shared project when the three brothers felt the desire to share their message more widely: to proclaim that everyone's calling is to love and to be loved.3 songs →Evangelical Christian rock · Courroux, SwitzerlandPhilippe DecourrouxPhilippe Decourroux was born on March 18, 1960, in the Swiss Jura under the name Philippe Bieri. Trained first in car mechanics, he turned to music through drumming, which he practiced from his teens in dance-hall bands, before earning a professional percussion diploma in La Chaux-de-Fonds and then training in classical singing at the Neuchâtel Conservatory. He took the stage name Decourroux, in reference to his home village of Courroux, and recorded his first album, Ambassadeurs, in 1993.3 songs →Urban gospel · FrancePiero BatteryPiero Battery discovered the power of gospel at age five, in the church where he grew up following in the footsteps of his musician father. At twelve he joined the group Sweetness, with whom he gave more than four hundred concerts across Europe and opened for international artists such as Mariah Carey and Michael Jackson.3 songs →Afro-worship gospel · CameroonPrisca BenitaPrisca Benita was born in Yaoundé and grew up in Douala, where she attended public school and then the bilingual high school of Deido. She went on to study medicine at the Faculty of Medicine, Pharmacy and Dental Surgery of Mali, before training in clinical research at Drexel University College of Medicine in the United States, then in medical administration at CIMT College in Canada. It was in a family where worship held an important place that she developed her love of singing early on.3 songs →Contemporary worship · QuebecRachel Chery PoyeauRachel Chery Poyeau discovered a love of singing for God very early on: she began composing at age fourteen, raised in a family upbringing marked by prayer. It was after a message that shook her thinking about the meaning of her destiny that she decided to fully commit to music, alongside her professional work as a manager in the healthcare sector in Quebec.3 songs →Worship · FranceSandra KouameSandra Kouame grew up in France in a family where music held an important place. She trained as a child at the Opera de Lyon's choir school, then sang in several choirs and bands before her conversion in 2003. After studying nursing, she went to Quebec to train in worship and theology at the Institut de Théologie pour la Francophonie, where she spent several years deepening her calling as a worship leader.2 songs →Pop rock hymns and carols · QuebecSebastian DemreyThe son of a church music director, Sebastian Demrey learned piano as a child and got involved very early in his community's worship ministry in Quebec. Trained at the St Laurent College of Music in Montreal, he began his career not as a singer but as a producer and musical director, touring with several French-speaking gospel artists, including Maggie Blanchard and Tabitha Lemaire within the collective Expression de louange.3 songs →Contemporary worship · Montreal (Quebec)Sébastien CornSébastien Corn left France, where he studied musicology, to settle in Quebec about twenty years ago. Trained in leadership and then in theology, he became a pastor and joined the team at La Chapelle church in Montreal in 2013, where he serves as creative director. He also leads Impact, the worship band that grew out of the youth of Nouvelle Vie church in Longueuil, which has won an Angel Music Award.3 songs →Christian rock · Landorthe, Haute-GaronneSens UniqueIn 2004, seven musicians from Landorthe, a small village in Haute-Garonne, founded Sens Unique to carry worship in a form they couldn't find anywhere else in their churches: rock. Five years later, in 2009, the band released its first album, "Contre-jour," followed by "On ne joue pas" in 2011. The band builds on a distinctive sound within the French-speaking worship scene, blending electric guitars and cello with the voices of Laurent and Myriam.3 songs →Pop-folk worship · Rennes (France)Serge HubSerge Hub grew up in Villefontaine, near Lyon, a childhood marked by rejection and bullying at school. Now based in Rennes, in Brittany, he has led worship at his church there for about ten years and founded a gospel choir, Gospel Joy, in 2008. His music, with simple, catchy melodies, draws directly from Scripture.3 songs →Gospel group · FranceSo GospelSo Gospel was born in 2009 at the initiative of Mickaël and Laurence Matiazzi, driven by their love for gospel music. The group brings together about ten singers from France's leading gospel choirs, joined over the years by around forty artists in total. Some of them have had the chance to sing alongside Stevie Wonder, Amel Bent, Céline Dion, or Chimène Badi, an experience that feeds the collective's musical standards.3 songs →Gospel · France, touring in Belgium, Switzerland, and RéunionSolideoThe group's name comes from the Latin "soli Deo," meaning "to God alone": a mission statement in itself for this gospel collective born in France in 2002. Solideo works on a distinctive model, that of a team renewed every year, bringing together about twenty volunteer musicians, singers, and technicians aged 16 to 40, from various French-speaking regions.3 songs →Folk and gospel worship · RennesSophie CordémySophie Cordémy gave her life to Jesus Christ on April 16, 2008, at ACER church in Rennes, and immediately joined the worship team as a singer. There she used her gifts during Sunday services and various Christian events. Soon after, a study stay at the University of Sherbrooke, in Quebec, became for her an experience she describes as life-changing for her faith. Back in France, she carried the vision of an evangelism album made for the whole French-speaking world.3 songs →Worship and adoration · Quebec, CanadaStéphane QuéryStéphane Quéry grew up in Quebec in a family of four children and had a personal encounter with God on July 10, 1983. Involved early on in his church through choir, quartets and duets, he also trained as a musician, playing trombone for six years before becoming a worship leader. For nine years, he sang and toured with the group Les Messagers, across Quebec, the French-speaking world and Europe.3 songs →Worship and adoration · Nord-Pas-de-Calais (France)Thérèse MotteThérèse Motte, also known as Thérèse Motte-Louart, has been writing worship songs since the 1980s, at first without quite realizing she was really composing: the melodies were born in her personal relationship with God, sung among a small circle before being taken up by the congregation. Married and a mother of four, she serves with her husband in small churches in Nord-Pas-de-Calais, in the Hauts-de-France region, him carrying the preaching and her the worship.3 songs →Christian pop-rock · Sète (France)Christophe RabyChristophe Raby was born in 1971 in Sète, on the Mediterranean coast. In 1993, at twenty-two, he had a personal encounter with Jesus Christ in an Assemblies of God church near Saint-Étienne. That conversion changed the course of his life: he began writing worship, exhortation and evangelism songs, and served as a worship leader or preacher in local churches, youth camps and Christian gatherings across France.3 songs →Christian pop · FranceCollectif BelieveCollectif Believe was born in 2013 from the meeting of three musicians, Nathalie, Vincent and Yvan, brought together by a shared spiritual and musical sensibility. Nathalie and Vincent, singer-songwriters who also work for other artists on the French scene, are a couple; Yvan, a guitarist, discovered music in a parish choir before playing on the streets and stages of Paris. Together, they chose to put their experience of popular music at the service of a message of faith.3 songs →Worship · Yvonand (Switzerland)Daniel PitarellaDaniel Pitarella was born in December 1961 and now lives in Yvonand, in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland, with his wife Vivianne. Trained at the Montreux jazz school before completing a contemporary music program in Lausanne, he developed a guitar style influenced by jazz, found in several of his compositions. For more than twenty-five years, he has led worship at his local church.3 songs →Pop-rock worship · ToulouseElisabeth BourbouzeElisabeth Bourbouze discovered her calling to worship at fifteen, when she joined the choir of the Communauté Samarie in Toulouse. In 1984, she co-founded Groupe Flamme with her husband Eric, a band that toured for nearly twenty years, mixing concerts, seminars and times of celebration in a ministry that combined worship and teaching. Since then, she has written songs with varied pop-rock rhythms, from powerful proclamation to intimate ballad, for the French-language catalog of Jeunesse en Mission (JEM).3 songs →Acoustic and jazz worship · FranceElise HaPassionate about music and singing for as long as she can remember, Elise Ha began writing songs and multi-part choruses at a very early age. Aware of the gift she had received, she chose not to let it stay buried, in the spirit of the parable of the talents in Matthew 25. From 2000 to 2006, she sang alongside Russ Speiser at regular worship gatherings, a collaboration that produced two joint CDs, La Source and Un cœur de louange.3 songs →Worship and folk-rock songwriting · United Kingdom then FranceJudith Ann RobertsonBorn in Birmingham, United Kingdom, to an English mother and a father of Scottish descent, Judith Ann Robertson was converted at 16 and went on to study modern languages and singing at the Birmingham Conservatoire. Passionate about France, she moved there as a young adult and never left. She became a founding member of several Christian associations, including Marche pour Jésus, Psalmodia Paris and Espoirs d'avenir.3 songs →Collective of committed Christian artists · FranceLes EnflammésLes Enflammés was born in 2006 at the first Dynamique Nouvelle Jeunesse (DNJ) congress in Valence, at the initiative of pastor and songwriter Thierry Noël. The idea: bring together dozens of French-speaking Christian artists for a concert built around a humanitarian cause. That first event supported a children's shelter in Peru. In 2009, a second edition gathered nearly thirty artists and around 4,300 young people at the Valence exhibition center, spanning styles from pop-rock to hip-hop, by way of jazz, gospel, r'n'b and rap, this time in support of the association Porteurs d'espoir.3 songs →Afro-gospel worship · Democratic Republic of Congo, based in ParisMacaire KalabasiBorn in Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Macaire Kalabasi met Jesus Christ as a teenager and felt an early call to the ministry of worship. In his youth in Congo, he sang in several Christian groups, including the CBZO youth choir, the group Sanka mu Yesu, and Five Warriors, before joining the Groupe évangélique de Kinshasa (GEVAKIN), with which he toured more than forty cities across the United States.3 songs →Conscious and spiritual rap · Essonne (France)MaloneMalone comes from the Essonne, a department nicknamed in the 1990s the capital of French hip hop. Rather than following the codes of rap that glorify money or violence, he chose a conscious rap style, turned toward the social reality of the suburbs and toward a more lyrical, almost poetic style of writing. He also created "Rhythm & Poetry," a writing event inspired by the New York collective A Tribe Called Quest, to keep this hip hop culture alive in a different way.2 songs →Christian rap, hip hop, jazz and soul · Paris regionMeakMeak, whose first name is Matthieu, takes his stage name from the English word "meek", meaning humble and gentle. Of Malagasy origin, he grew up in the Paris region and started creating his own instrumentals from the age of 16, before writing lyrics over them. His music blends hip hop, jazz, R&B and soul, in a style he shapes entirely himself, from beatmaking to songwriting.3 songs →Pop rock worship · StrasbourgMonsieur et Madame KBefore forming Monsieur et Madame K, Cédric and Noémie Kessler had already made music together elsewhere. from 2001 to 2007, the couple sang in the band Made in Heaven, with whom they toured for six years and recorded a three-track CD. in January 2008, they created Molly Syndrome, a project designed to share their faith outside Christian circles, which took them to several stages across eastern France.3 songs →Soul gospel · Cameroon/SwitzerlandOlivier CheuwaOlivier Cheuwa was born on October 31, 1974, in Douala, Cameroon. He moved to Quebec at sixteen with his parents, who pictured him as a doctor or biologist. It was discovering the film Sister Act that pushed him toward music: at nineteen, he joined the Jireh Gospel Choir despite his family's reservations, and there developed a neo-soul style inspired by Stevie Wonder, Boyz II Men and Eric Clapton.3 songs →French-language worship · Lyon (France)Pasteur&CompagniePasteur&Compagnie is the musical project of Philippe Viguier, pastor of the Église protestante évangélique de Villeurbanne-Cusset, near Lyon, since 2015. Trained in theology, he also teaches an introduction to the New Testament at the Institut Biblique de Genève and co-writes books for the publisher Clé, including a handbook on leading worship services. It is out of this same pastoral concern that Pasteur&Compagnie was born: to offer French-speaking churches songs that are easy to sing in a congregation, translated or adapted from English-language texts by writers such as Keith Getty, Stuart Townend or the CityAlight collective.3 songs →Evangelical worship · Texas (United States)Paul BalochePaul Baloche was born in 1962 in Camden, New Jersey, into a Catholic family of French origin: his grandparents, who were from Paris, had settled in Canada in the early twentieth century. After becoming a Christian, he studied at the Grove School of Music, where he crossed paths with several artists who would go on to shape the American Christian music scene. He became worship pastor at Community Christian Fellowship, in Lindale, Texas, and wrote songs now sung around the world, such as Open the Eyes of My Heart and Above All, named song of the year at the Dove Awards in 2002 and 2003.3 songs →Christian rap · FranceR2CR2C, short for Rappeur de Conscience, is a French Christian rap duo formed around 2009 by DH2S, aka Deal'Heure 2 Savoir, and Blessed Preacher. The group presents itself as carrying a strong message, that of hope, addressed to a generation of young people the world keeps telling that they are doomed to fail. In 2011, R2C released its first album, Royal, available on legal download platforms, a record written, composed and produced entirely by the duo.3 songs →Worship, YWAM Music · Yverdon-les-Bains (Switzerland)Rolf SchneiderRolf Schneider joined Youth With A Mission (YWAM) in 1975 and became head of the organization's music department in Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland. That same year, he founded the Christian rock band Visa, with which he performed for more than thirty years in schools, prisons, churches and public squares across France, Belgium, French-speaking Africa, Canada, and even New Caledonia. A guitarist, singer, songwriter, teacher and evangelist, he shares his ministry between worship, evangelism and training, alongside his wife Maryse.3 songs →Worship and cello · Nouvelle Vie, Longueuil (Quebec)Anne-Clémence RouffetAnne-Clémence Rouffet grew up immersed in worship from childhood: her father led worship at her church. She pursued demanding musical training, up to a master's degree in cello performance, complemented by a certificate in theology from the Institut Biblique de Théologie pour la Francophonie in Canada. She is now pursuing a doctorate in cello at the Université de Montréal, while serving as a worship leader with Nouvelle Vie Worship in Longueuil.3 songs →Worship · Limoges, FranceSéverine LacorreSéverine Lacorre has been singing since childhood, but it was a trial that gave birth to her music ministry. After going through breast cancer and a career change into teaching, following ten years devoted full-time to her four children, she decided to put her voice at the service of her faith. In 2021, she released her first EP, "Confiance," six songs she describes as the fruit of deep experiences with the Lord and personal moments of realization.3 songs →Christian rap · Paris, FranceT-Gen KingT-Gen King discovered the Christian faith in 2003 in Brazzaville, Congo. This encounter changed the purpose he gave to his rap: he chose to put his talent at the service of proclaiming the Gospel rather than pursuing a conventional music career. Now based in Paris, he draws on the mission given in Matthew 28, making disciples of all nations, speaking first and foremost to young people searching for direction.3 songs →Afro-gospel worship · Geneva (Switzerland)TchouvaTchouva was born at a crossroads between Europe and Africa. It all started when a pianist from Geneva discovered African worship songs in an annex of the African church of Coteau, in Geneva. Won over by the rhythms and spontaneity of this music, he led worship there for two years alongside his wife Odile, who is from Côte d'Ivoire, before introducing these songs into his own church, the Assemblies of God of Montbrillant, also in Geneva.3 songs →Worship and adoration · Saint-Joseph, Réunion IslandYeshuaYeshua was born in 2007 in Saint-Joseph, on Réunion Island, led by pastor Jean-Pierre Grondin, author, composer and lead singer of the group. He is joined by Gabrielle and Jenylee, who provide the backing vocals. The group's name, meaning "Jesus" in Hebrew, sets the tone for a project fully turned toward adoration: the songs are drawn from Scripture and the music is meant to be inspired by the Holy Spirit.3 songs →Contemporary Christian pop · Augusta, Georgia, USAAmy GrantAmy Grant grew up in Nashville in a family of doctors and discovered music as a teenager. Spotted while recording a demo in a local studio, she signed with the Christian label Word Records before she even turned sixteen and released her first album in 1977. With Age to Age in 1982, she became the first Christian artist to have an album certified platinum, earning her the nickname queen of contemporary Christian music.3 songs →Christian rap · New York, USAAndy MineoAndrew Aaron Mineo was born on April 17, 1988, in Syracuse, New York, and grew up in a single parent household. He started producing music in high school and formed the group Fat Camp, signed to the college label Marshall Street Records. After moving to New York City, he went through a period of spiritual drift before reconnecting with his faith after hearing a song by Christian rapper Da' T.R.U.T.H., which led him to close his studio and join an urban evangelism program.3 songs →Christian rap, R&B, and pop · Austin, Texas, USAAnikeAnike began her career in 2016 under the name Wande, a contraction of her former legal first names Mutiat and Yewande. Signed to Reach Records, the label founded by Lecrae, she became the first woman to join the label's roster, alongside artists like Trip Lee, KB, and the 116 Clique, with whom she has shared several collaborations over the years.3 songs →Christian country · Lexington, Kentucky, USAAnne WilsonAnne Claire Wilson was born on February 21, 2002, in Lexington, Kentucky, into a Christian family that attended a Presbyterian church. In 2017, the accidental death of her older brother Jacob, age 23, turned her life upside down. It was while singing at his funeral that she publicly discovered her voice, in a moment of grief turned into worship. This trial became the starting point of her musical calling, which she directly links to growing closer to God.3 songs →Contemporary worship · Belfast, Northern IrelandBenjamin William HastingsBenjamin William Hastings was born on November 15, 1991, in Belfast, Northern Ireland. As a teenager, he played guitar and sang in the streets of his city, until he discovered a Hillsong United record in a bookshop and crossed paths with the band during a stop in Belfast. At nineteen, he moved to Sydney, Australia, where he joined the Hillsong worship scene through the childhood friends of Jessa, who would later become his wife. He then became a lasting part of the Hillsong United collective.3 songs →Contemporary worship · Redding, CaliforniaBethel MusicBethel Music was born in 2001 in Redding, California, as the music ministry of Bethel Church, an evangelical and charismatic church. Brian and Jenn Johnson laid its foundations with a simple idea: to form worshippers seeking real intimacy with God rather than a stage performance. Between 2009 and 2013, this local ministry grew into a label and publishing house, before becoming, in February 2015, a collective in its own right, the Bethel Music Artist Collective, open to artists from other ministries such as Cory Asbury and Jonathan and Melissa Helser.3 songs →Christian rock · Mobile, Alabama, USABig Daddy WeaveBig Daddy Weave formed in 1998 at the University of Mobile, Alabama, where Mike Weaver arrived to study voice on his pastor's advice, after leading worship at a church in Pensacola, Florida. With Jay Weaver on bass, Jeremy Redmon on guitar and Joe Shirk on keyboards, the band took on a deliberately quirky name and started touring the southern United States.3 songs →Acoustic Christian pop · Nashville, USABrandon HeathBrandon Heath Knell was born on July 21, 1978 in Nashville, Tennessee, where his father was a police officer and his mother a hairdresser. He picked up guitar and songwriting at thirteen, drawing inspiration from artists like Sting and Shawn Colvin, but did not turn to the Christian faith until he was sixteen. Discovered at the Bluebird Cafe, a landmark of the Nashville folk scene, he released two independent albums before signing with Reunion Records and releasing Don't Get Comfortable in 2006.3 songs →Contemporary worship · South Carolina, USABrandon LakeBrandon Lake was born on June 21, 1990 in Dallas, Texas, and grew up in Charleston and then Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, in a family of pastors. As a teenager he was already playing on his church's worship team, then became head of the college ministry at Seacoast Church. In 2015, a crowdfunding campaign allowed him to produce his first album, Closer, released in 2016 with the single Run To You, the official starting point of his career.3 songs →Worship and songwriting · Los Angeles, California, USABrooke LigertwoodBrooke Gabrielle Fraser was born on December 15, 1983 in Wellington, New Zealand. She wrote her first song at 12 and signed with Sony Music at just 18. Under the name Brooke Fraser, she released several pop albums that made a mark in her home country, before joining the Hillsong Worship team in 2005 under her married name, Brooke Ligertwood.3 songs →Country worship and Christian pop · Alabama, USACAINTaylor, Madison and Logan Cain grew up in Hartselle, Alabama, in a family where their father is a pastor at a Pentecostal church. From the age of four, Taylor was already writing a Christmas song that the three siblings learned to sing in three-part harmony, a habit that became the foundation of their musical bond. The three siblings then studied at Troy University, where in 2012 they won a contest that let them open for singer Dave Barnes, a turning point that pushed them to move to Nashville and try their hand at music.3 songs →Worship pop-rock · Georgia, USACasting CrownsCasting Crowns was born in 1999 in Daytona Beach, Florida, as a youth worship group at First Baptist Church. Its founder, Mark Hall, was then a youth pastor: he wrote songs to accompany his messages to the teenagers in his church. In 2001, the team moved to McDonough, Georgia, where it grew to include Hall, the DeVevo couple, Megan Garrett and several other musicians. Two self-produced albums then circulated in churches across the southern United States, eventually catching the ear of country singer Mark Miller, who helped them sign with Beach Street Records, a division of Reunion Records.3 songs →Gospel and worship · Detroit, Michigan, USACeCe WinansThe eighth of ten children raised in the Church of God in Christ in Detroit, CeCe Winans grew up in a family where gospel music was everywhere: the Winans family would go on to produce several generations of artists. Discovered alongside her brother BeBe on the Christian television show The PTL Club in the early 1980s, she formed the duo BeBe & CeCe Winans with him, whose album Different Lifestyles earned them a Grammy in 1991.3 songs →Gospel worship · Charleston, USAChandler MooreChandler David Moore was born on March 21, 1995, in Charleston, South Carolina, into a family where faith shapes everything: his father, Bishop Brian David Moore, is a pastor, and his mother also leads worship. As a teenager and young adult, he became a music director at a small church before serving as a background vocalist for Travis Greene and Tye Tribbett. In 2019, he joined the founding members of Maverick City Music in Atlanta, a collective that quickly established itself as one of the major voices of contemporary American worship.3 songs →Worship and adoration · Houston, Texas, USACharity GayleCharity Gayle grew up near Niagara Falls, in a family of pastors and church musicians: her father and grandfather were both pastors, and her mother led the choir. She started singing at the age of three and began writing songs at fourteen. After finishing her studies, she became an English teacher while leading worship on weekends at her father's church.3 songs →Contemporary worship · Grand Saline, Texas, USAChris TomlinChristopher Dwayne Tomlin was born on May 4, 1972, in Grand Saline, a small Texas town, where he began singing at age thirteen at Main Street Baptist Church. He wrote his first worship song at fourteen and received his first guitar from his father. As a student at Texas A&M, he led worship for a campus group, Breakaway, where he became friends with pastor Louie Giglio, a decisive encounter that set him on the path to full-time music ministry.3 songs →Rock then gospel · Tokyo, Japan小坂忠 (Chu Kosaka)Born on July 8, 1948, in Nerima, Tokyo, and raised in Shiki, in Saitama Prefecture, Masayuki Kosaka, known as Chu Kosaka, began his music career in 1966 with the group The Floral. In 1969, he co-founded the psychedelic rock group Apryl Fool with Haruomi Hosono and Takashi Matsumoto, a key milestone in the history of Japanese rock. His solo album "Horo" (1975), recorded with the musicians of the Tin Pan Alley collective, is now regarded as a landmark of Japanese pop music.3 songs →Christian pop-rock · Pike County, Indiana, USACochren & Co.Michael Cochren grew up in Pike County, Indiana, where he learned music from a young age. After finishing school, he started a band with friends, then with his wife Leah Cochren, and began touring under the name Cochren & Co. He shaped a style that blends pop, rock and soul, carried by lyrics inspired by his marriage, his faith and everyday life in the American Midwest.3 songs →Contemporary worship · Texas then Nashville, USACody CarnesCody Jay Carnes was born on March 25, 1989 in Atlanta, Georgia, and grew up in Big Spring, Texas, where he began leading worship for his youth group at just fifteen years old. After high school, a music project with friends brought him to the Dallas area, where he joined Gateway Church and became a worship pastor with the Gateway Worship team in the early 2010s.3 songs →Christian rock · Tennessee, USAColton DixonColton Dixon grew up in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, before becoming widely known in 2012 thanks to season 11 of American Idol, where he finished seventh. Before that television experience, he was already singing in a Christian rock band called Messenger, formed in 2010. It is this dual experience, growing up around church and competing on a national stage, that shaped his style: melodic rock carried by a strong piano sound and choruses built to be sung together.3 songs →Christian rock · Oklahoma, USAConsumed By FireConsumed By Fire was born in 2010 around brothers Caleb, Jordan, and Josh Ward, who grew up sharing a common dream of traveling the world to share their faith through music. The band first released music independently, before signing with Inpop Records and releasing the EP Lean On Me in 2015 and then the album Giving Over in 2016, which gave them their first airplay on Christian radio.3 songs →Bluegrass and electronic worship · Waco, TexasCrowderDavid Wallace Crowder was born on November 29, 1971 in Texarkana, Texas. While studying at Baylor University in Waco, he began leading worship for a young church, University Baptist Church, founded in 1995 with pastor Chris Seay. That experience gave rise to his first songs, Pour Over Me (1996) and then All I Can Say (1999), which spread well beyond his own congregation. In 2002, the David Crowder Band signed with Sixsteps and Sparrow Records: the band enjoyed ten years together and won fourteen Dove Awards before disbanding in 2012.3 songs →Contemporary Christian music · Milwaukee, WisconsinDanny GokeyBefore fame, Danny Gokey served as worship director at Faith Builders International Ministries church in Milwaukee, while driving a truck for a logistics company. In July 2008, his first wife Sophia died from complications following heart surgery. Four weeks later, he auditioned for American Idol and finished third in season 8 in 2009, never once landing among the lowest ranked contestants in the competition.3 songs →Gospel worship · North Carolina, USADante BoweDante Bowe was born on May 10, 1993 in Rockingham, North Carolina, into a family shaped by faith: his grandparents are ministers. After a youth marked by personal hardship, he launched an independent music project in 2016, Son of a Father (2017), before joining the Bethel Music collective and then, in 2019, becoming one of the founding members of Maverick City Music.3 songs →Contemporary worship · Brisbane, AustraliaDarlene ZschechDarlene Zschech, born Steinhardt on September 8, 1965 in Brisbane, Australia, first appears on camera at age ten on the children's show Happy Go Round. As a teenager, she sings in local gospel groups before becoming a session singer in Sydney, lending her voice to advertising jingles. This varied musical training prepares her for a career devoted entirely to Christian worship.3 songs →Christian rap rock · Lynchburg, Virginia, United Statesdc Talkdc Talk comes together in 1987 on the campus of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, where student Toby McKeehan combines rap with a Christian message at campus events. He brings in two other students, Michael Tait and Kevin Max, to form a vocal trio blending rap, R&B, and rock. Quickly noticed, the group signs with Christian label ForeFront Records in January 1989 and releases its self-titled debut album that same year.3 songs →Christian rock · EnglandDelirious?It all starts in 1992 in Littlehampton, on the south coast of England, within a youth group from Arun Community Church: The Cutting Edge Band. Around Martin Smith (vocals, guitar), the lineup that would become famous gradually takes shape, with Tim Jupp (keyboards), Stu G (guitar), Jon Thatcher (bass), and Stew Smith (drums). In 1996, the band takes the name Delirious? and asserts an ambitious brand of Christian rock, made for secular stages as much as for church.3 songs →Christian rap · Pontiac, Michigan / Tennessee, USADerek MinorDerek Minor grows up in Tennessee after leaving Michigan with his mother, in a family shaped by music: his father, a jazz musician, introduces him to rap at a young age. As a student in the music program at Middle Tennessee State University, he earns a degree in music business before launching his career under the stage name PRo, co-founding the label Reflection Music Group (RMG) with Doc Watson in 2008.3 songs →Contemporary worship · Charlotte, North CarolinaElevation WorshipElevation Worship is born in 2007 in Charlotte, North Carolina, as the musical arm of Elevation Church, a multisite church founded the year before by pastor Steven Furtick. The group first releases four independent albums, The Sound (2007), We Are Alive (2008), God With Us (2009), and Kingdom Come (2010), before reaching a much wider audience through Essential Records.3 songs →Christian pop · Nashville, Tennessee, USAfor KING + COUNTRYJoel and Luke Smallbone were born in Sydney, Australia, into a family where music held a central place: their father, David Smallbone, worked as a music promoter, and their older sister, Rebecca St James, became a well known Christian artist. The family emigrated to the United States in 1991 and settled in the Nashville, Tennessee area.3 songs →Christian pop / worship hip-hop · Texas, USAForrest FrankForrest Neil Frank was born on April 8, 1995 in Fulshear, Texas, into a family that was first Baptist and later nondenominational, where his mother led worship. After studying business at Baylor University, he first made a name for himself as one half of the pop duo Surfaces, formed with Colin Padalecki, whose song Sunday Best went viral on social media in 2019. In 2022, he began releasing Christian music under his own name, with songs he records himself from his laptop.3 songs →Contemporary Christian music · New York, USAFrancesca BattistelliFrancesca Battistelli was born on May 18, 1985 in New York, an only child of parents who themselves came from musical theater. As a teenager, she joined the girl pop group Bella in Orlando before going independent with the album Just a Breath in 2004. Her real breakthrough came in 2008 with My Paper Heart, her first album signed to Fervent Records.3 songs →Urban gospel · Detroit, Michigan, USAFred HammondFred Hammond grew up in Detroit and started singing at age twelve in his church choir. He first made a name for himself as a bassist with The Winans before joining the group Commissioned in 1985, with whom he recorded ten albums. This group experience shaped his gift for vocal arrangement and his ability to blend styles, a signature he would go on to develop throughout his solo career.3 songs →Contemporary worship · Texas, USAGateway WorshipGateway Worship was born in 2003 within Gateway Church, a congregation in the Dallas-Fort Worth area founded three years earlier in Southlake, Texas, which has since become one of the largest churches in the United States. The collective brings together the church's worship leaders to record, Sunday after Sunday, the songs that carry its services, before sharing them with the wider Church through live albums.3 songs →Contemporary worship · Sydney, AustraliaHillsong UNITEDHillsong UNITED was born in 1998 in the suburbs of Sydney, Australia, within the youth ministry of Hillsong Church, then known as Powerhouse Youth. Encouraged by worship pastor Darlene Zschech to record their own songs, the group released its first live album, Everyday, the following year. First led by Reuben Morgan, the collective came under the direction of Joel Houston and Marty Sampson starting in 2002, a turning point that shaped the more rock and cinematic sound that would become its signature.3 songs →Contemporary worship · Sydney, AustraliaHillsong WorshipHillsong Worship is the worship ministry of Hillsong Church, a Pentecostal church founded in 1983 in Sydney by Brian and Bobbie Houston. From the church's earliest days, recording the songs used in services became a regular practice, with a first album, Spirit and Truth, released in 1988. The group was known at the time as Hillsong Live, a name that reflected its roots in services filmed live.3 songs →Pop worship, Christian electro · Sydney, AustraliaHillsong Young and FreeHillsong Young and Free was born in 2012 in Sydney, as the youth branch of Hillsong Church, driven by pastors Peter Toganivalu and Laura Toggs, daughter of the church's founder Brian Houston. The goal was to bring worship to a generation raised on pop and electronic music, a step away from the more classic arrangements of Hillsong Worship, the church's longtime collective.3 songs →Contemporary worship · Nashville, TennesseeHope DarstHope Darst grew up dreaming of a music career, but chose early on to put her family and her church service first. In 2013, after a decade spent serving her local community, she joined the team laying the foundations of The Belonging Co, a church that started in a basement in Nashville before becoming one of the fastest growing worship organizations in the United States. She sang on the church's first two albums, All the Earth and Awe and Wonder.3 songs →Collective worship · Atlanta, Georgia, USAHousefiresHousefires was born in 2014 in Atlanta, Georgia, within Grace Midtown church, which had previously released worship albums under its own name. The collective initially brought together Pat Barrett and Tony Brown on vocals and guitar, Kirby Kaple as worship pastor, Nate Moore, and musicians such as Vicki Schmidt, Jonathan Jay, Zac Brooks and Harold Brown. The name Housefires comes from a vision held by the church: seeing houses across the city of Atlanta catch fire with the presence of God.3 songs →Christian rap · Brunswick, Georgia, USAHulveyRaised in a Christian family in Georgia, Hulvey says he gave his life to God at the age of four. After dropping out of college, he moved to Atlanta to devote himself to music and initially supported himself by working at a grocery store. Spotted by Reach Records, he signed with the label in August 2019, a partnership announced publicly in January 2020, and joined the 116 collective alongside Lecrae, Andy Mineo and Trip Lee.3 songs →Contemporary worship · Anaheim Hills, California (USA)Influence MusicInfluence Music was born in April 2017 behind the scenes at Influence Church, a church founded five years earlier in Anaheim Hills, California, by pastors Phil and Tammy Hotsenpiller. Built around a core group of musicians and songwriters from the Los Angeles music industry, the collective came together for a week of writing in Big Bear, in the California mountains, which produced around twenty songs. That session became the foundation for their first album, Touching Heaven, released in 2018 and pushed to number one on Christian sales on iTunes.3 songs →Worship · Oceanside, California, USAIsrael HoughtonBorn on May 19, 1971, in Oceanside, California, Israel Houghton grew up with a white mother and a Jamaican father, in a family story marked by a difficult start. After becoming a worship leader, he founded the group Israel & New Breed in 1997, with whom he recorded most of his discography under the name Israel & New Breed.3 songs →Christian alternative rock, folk · Nashville, Tennessee, USAJars of ClayJars of Clay formed in 1993 at Greenville College in Illinois, where Dan Haseltine and Charlie Lowell, both students of contemporary Christian music, teamed up to write a song for a class project. The band's name comes from a verse in Second Corinthians, which speaks of the fragility of the clay jar in which God places his treasure. Stephen Mason and Matthew Odmark later joined the lineup on guitars.3 songs →Christian rock · Lafayette, Indiana (USA)Jeremy CampJeremy Camp grew up in Indiana, where his pastor father taught him guitar. He went on to study theology at Calvary Chapel Bible College in California and joined a worship team that toured the southern part of the state. His life changed in 2000 when he married Melissa Lynn Henning, a young woman in remission from ovarian cancer, who passed away a few months later, in February 2001. Two weeks after her death, he wrote "I Still Believe," a song that would become the foundation of his first major album, "Stay" (2003).3 songs →Contemporary worship · Redding, California, USAJesus CultureJesus Culture was born in 1999 in Redding, California, within the youth ministry of Bethel Church, under the leadership of pastor Banning Liebscher. The first conferences brought together teenagers around a desire for spiritual renewal, and a group of young musicians from the church, including Kim Walker-Smith, Chris Quilala and Melissa How, began writing their own songs rather than only performing the existing repertoire. This core group would give rise to Jesus Culture Music, the label that carries the ministry.3 songs →Contemporary gospel · Chicago, United StatesJonathan McReynoldsJonathan Caleb McReynolds was born on September 17, 1989, in Chicago, Illinois, and was raised by his mother. A musician before he was a singer, he took up drums at age five and then piano at age eight, playing regularly at his local church. He went on to study music at Columbia College Chicago, where he recorded the song No Gray in his dorm room. The song went viral and made him known well beyond Chicago.3 songs →Christian pop, rock and soul · California (United States)Jordan FelizJordan Feliz was born on March 15, 1989, in Clovis, California. As a teenager, he joined the Christian rock band A Current Affair in 2006, carrying the group for several years before it disbanded. In 2012, he moved to Nashville to focus on songwriting. His demo made the rounds thanks to Jennifer Deibler, singer of the band FFH, who passed it along to several record labels: this connection opened the door to a contract with the Christian label Centricity Music.3 songs →Christian folk rock · Florida, USAJosiah QueenJosiah Queen was born on January 11, 2003, in Clearwater, Florida, into a family of pastors based in New Port Richey. He became a Christian at age nine during a youth gathering in Kansas, started writing songs at that same age, and released his first single, God of Miracles, in 2020. In the spring of 2023, he was still working as a janitor at the church where he grew up when his song I Am Barabbas entered the Billboard Christian songs chart, marking the true starting point of his career.3 songs →Contemporary worship · Texas then Nashville, USAKari JobeKari Brooke Jobe was born on April 6, 1981, in Waco, Texas, into a family where her father, Mark Jobe, would go on to become pastor over the global ministries of Gateway Church. She has been singing since age three, studied at Oral Roberts University and then Christ For The Nations Institute, before earning a degree in psychology and pastoral ministry from Dallas Baptist University. She then joined Gateway Church, in Southlake, as an associate worship pastor and member of the group Gateway Worship.3 songs →Contemporary worship · Illinois, United StatesKaty NicholeKaty Nichole was born on July 29, 2000, in Tremont, a small town in Illinois. As a teenager, she sang in her church choir and started at age 14 writing songs and leading worship. At 15, a scoliosis diagnosis turned her life upside down: the pain became chronic and several surgeries were needed. It was out of this trial, and a healing she credits to God, that the song that would change everything was born, written from words set down in her prayer journal.3 songs →Christian rap · Florida, USAKBKevin Elijah Burgess was born on July 21, 1988, in St. Petersburg, Florida, into a military family that moved to Illinois for a time before returning to Florida after his parents separated. A troubled teenager, he discovered Christian rap through a CD a friend gave him and found in his faith a new direction. At Trinity College of Florida, he and some friends formed the group HGA (His Glory Alone), which caught the attention of rapper Lecrae.3 songs →Modern hymns · Northern IrelandKeith et Kristyn GettyKeith Getty grew up in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, where he learned classical guitar at eleven and then flute, before studying music at Durham University, graduating in 1995. Kristyn Lennox, born in Belfast in 1980, studied English literature at Queen's University Belfast before turning to songwriting. The two musicians met in 2002 and married in 2004, joining their talents to renew the writing of contemporary Christian hymns.3 songs →Contemporary worship · Redding, CaliforniaKim Walker-SmithKimberlee Dawn Walker was born on December 19, 1981, in Albany, Oregon, and grew up on a farm near Klamath Falls. After giving her life to Christ at eighteen, she moved to Redding, California, where she discovered Bethel Church's house of prayer and then completed the church's two-year ministry school. She went on to become a worship pastor there.3 songs →Urban gospel · Fort Worth, Texas, USAKirk FranklinRaised by his great aunt after being abandoned as a small child, Kirk Franklin discovered the piano at age four thanks to her savings. A child prodigy, he was already directing a church choir at eleven in Fort Worth. In 1992, he brought together about fifteen young singers from his neighborhood to form Kirk Franklin and the Family: their first album, released in 1993, sold over a million copies and blurred the lines between gospel, R&B, and pop.3 songs →Contemporary gospel · Louisiana, United StatesKoryn HawthorneKoryn Mattanah Hawthorne was born on December 26, 1997, in Abbeville, Louisiana, the daughter of a pastor. She has sung in church since childhood and started performing at age nine with the organization Louisiana Kids, going on to give local performances throughout her high school years at festivals, nursing homes, and charity events.3 songs →Contemporary Christian music · Louisiana, USALauren DaigleLauren Ashley Daigle was born on September 9, 1991, in Lake Charles and grew up in Lafayette, Louisiana, surrounded by local zydeco and Cajun blues music. At fifteen, a cytomegalovirus infection kept her out of school for two years. Singing lessons became her outlet during that time and revealed an extraordinary voice. She initially planned to study medicine at Louisiana State University, while also directing the campus choir.3 songs →Contemporary Christian music · Stanwood, Washington, USALeanna CrawfordLeanna Crawford was born on June 13, 1995, in Stanwood, Washington, where she grew up homeschooled alongside two sisters and a brother. She earned a degree in music business from Northwest University in Kirkland. In 2012, on a mission trip, she says she felt a call from God toward music ministry. The following year, she won the Praise 106.5 radio station's music contest with her song Moment by Moment, produced by Ed Cash.3 songs →Christian hip-hop · Houston, Texas, USALecraeLecrae Devaughn Moore was born on October 9, 1979, in Houston, Texas, and grew up in a poor neighborhood on the south side of the city, raised by a single mother. As a teenager, he went through a period marked by drugs and delinquency. At nineteen, a Bible study followed by a concert by the group The Cross Movement in Atlanta, where he heard pastor James White preach, led him to convert to Christianity, a turning point he describes as a new birth.3 songs →Worship duo · JapanLOUANGE (Yuji & Tamiko)Yuji Kurokawa grew up in Sapporo, on the island of Hokkaido, immersed in church music from childhood. He later went to study in New York before returning to Japan. In September 2014, he experienced what he describes as a call to devote himself entirely to prayer and singing, a decision that led him to become a full time musician and worshipper in the service of Jesus Christ. Today he serves as worship leader at a church in Kawasaki, in Kanagawa prefecture.3 songs →Christian rock and country · Atlanta, Georgia, USAMac PowellJohnny Mac Powell was born on December 25, 1972, in Clanton, Alabama. His family later moved near Atlanta, Georgia, where he finished high school. That's where he met guitarist Mark Lee: together, in the mid 1990s, they founded Third Day, which would go on to become one of the pillars of American Christian rock for more than twenty years.3 songs →Christian folk music · Japan岩渕まこと (Makoto Iwabuchi)Makoto Iwabuchi (岩渕まこと, real name Iwabuchi Ryo) was born in 1953 in Sendai, in northern Japan. He started out in 1977 as a singer songwriter with Columbia, releasing the albums "Super Moon" and "Air Pocket," before becoming a Christian in 1980. He then recorded as a duo with Chu Kosaka, another leading figure of Japanese Christian music, a collaboration that lasted until the mid 1990s. Between 1981 and 1983, he sang three consecutive Doraemon movie theme songs, a feat no other artist has matched.3 songs →Gospel, contemporary Christian music · California, USAMandisaMandisa Lynn Hundley was born on October 2, 1976, in Citrus Heights, California. While a student at Fisk University in Nashville, she sang with the famed Fisk Jubilee Singers before becoming known to a wider audience in 2006, during the fifth season of American Idol, where she reached the top 10. That television exposure led her to sign with Sparrow Records and release her debut album, True Beauty, in 2007, featuring the Fisk Jubilee Singers and TobyMac.3 songs →Contemporary gospel · Miami, Florida, USAMaranda CurtisMaranda Curtis was born on August 4, 1979, in Miami, Florida, the fourth of seven children. Her parents, Pastor W. S. Curtis and Darlene Curtis, were former R&B singers, and it was by listening to their rehearsals that she learned early on to harmonize her voice. At age twelve, her family moved to Georgia, her father's home state, where he entered pastoral ministry. Maranda naturally joined her church's worship team and choir.3 songs →Gospel · Grand Rapids, Michigan, USAMarvin SappBorn on January 28, 1967, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Marvin Sapp has been singing in church since age four. In the 1990s he joined the gospel group Commissioned before launching a solo career in 1996 with a self titled debut album. Seven albums later, he had established himself as one of the leading voices in contemporary American gospel.3 songs →Contemporary Catholic worship · Nashville, TennesseeMatt MaherMatthew Guion Maher was born on November 10, 1974, in Newfoundland, Canada. His family later moved to Arizona, where he studied jazz at Arizona State University while becoming a musician at St Timothy Catholic Church in Mesa. It was there that he began writing songs for the congregation, before releasing several albums through the Catholic label Spirit and Song.3 songs →Contemporary worship · England, United KingdomMatt RedmanMatthew James Redman was born on February 14, 1974, in Watford, England, and grew up in Chorleywood after his father died by suicide when he was seven. As a teenager, he began leading worship at his local church, encouraged by youth pastor Mike Pilavachi, with whom he helped launch the Soul Survivor movement, which would leave a lasting mark on British evangelical worship.3 songs →Christian pop · Nashville, Tennessee (USA)Matthew WestMatthew West grew up in Illinois, the son of a pastor, sitting in the front row during his father's services. Passionate about music from his teenage years, he earned a scholarship to study music at Millikin University. In the late 1990s, he released three independent albums before signing with Universal South Records. His first album, "Happy" (2003), which won a Dove Award, featured the single "More," which stayed at number one on adult contemporary Christian charts for nine weeks.3 songs →Collective worship, gospel · Atlanta, USAMaverick City MusicMaverick City Music was born in 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia, out of an initiative by Tony Brown and Jonathan Jay: to bring together Christian songwriters from all walks of life at writing camps to create worship that reflects the diversity of the American church. After several years of shared sessions, the collective released its first two volumes, Maverick City Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, in 2019, before becoming one of the most followed worship projects in the United States.3 songs →Christian rock · Oklahoma, USAMercyMeMercyMe was formed in 1994 in Edmond, Oklahoma, when singer Bart Millard and pianist James Bryson decided to fully devote themselves to ministry music. The band released several independent albums in the 1990s before signing with INO Records in 2001. Bart Millard, born in 1972 in Greenville, Texas, then wrote I Can Only Imagine, a song inspired by his father's death, which would become the band's defining song.3 songs →Christian pop · Texas, United StatesMicah TylerMicah Tyler grew up in Buna, a small town in southeast Texas, where he became a youth pastor right after high school before driving a delivery truck across the region. In 2013, he released his first album, The Story I Tell, with no record label. Three years later, a satirical video set to a Beatles tune, gently poking fun at the habits of his generation, went viral and introduced him to an audience far beyond Christian music.3 songs →Contemporary Christian music · Nashville, USAMichael W. SmithMichael W. Smith was born in 1957 in Kenova, West Virginia, into a modest family where faith was lived out at the local church, at the piano and in the choir. He arrived in Nashville in 1978 to break into music and went through a period of drifting before fully returning to his faith at the end of 1979. He then became a keyboardist, and later a songwriter for artists like Amy Grant, whose touring musician he was in the early 1980s.3 songs →Christian gospel · Kawasaki, JapanMigiwaMigiwa grew up in Kawasaki, in Kanagawa prefecture, in a Christian family where she attended church and sang in the choir from childhood. A shy, introverted child, she dreaded school and, in her third year of junior high, gradually withdrew and stayed home: several years of social isolation followed, marked by deep distress. Church remained her only safe space during that time, and a pastor's words echoing Isaiah 43:4, "you are precious in my eyes, you are honored, and I love you," became a turning point in her recovery.3 songs →Contemporary worship · Los Angeles, California (USA)Mosaic MSCMosaic MSC was born in 2014 within Mosaic, a Los Angeles church founded in 1943 as Bethel Baptist Church before becoming nondenominational under pastor and author Erwin McManus. The collective's first album, MSC (Live from LA), was recorded live at the Wiltern Theater on May 24, 2014, and released the following year, reaching number 21 on the Billboard Christian chart.3 songs →Gospel worship · New York, USANaomi RaineNaomi Raine Solomon was born on April 9, 1987, in New York, into a family where worship was passed down from generation to generation: both her parents led worship in their church. As a child, she listened to the choir rehearse and was given a keyboard that became her first tool for songwriting, in the privacy of her bedroom. Shaped by African-American gospel tradition and contemporary Christian music, she became one of the founding members of Maverick City Music in 2019, the collective that would go on to transform American worship music in the 2020s.3 songs →Worship and contemporary Christian music · Seattle, Washington, USANatalie GrantNatalie Diane Grant was born on December 21, 1971, in Seattle, Washington. She got her start in Christian music by auditioning for the traveling group Truth, before releasing her self-titled debut solo album in 1999. Her powerful voice and sense of melody quickly caught the attention of the contemporary Christian music (CCM) scene.3 songs →Americana rock · Seneca, South CarolinaNEEDTOBREATHENEEDTOBREATHE was born in 2001 in Seneca, South Carolina, when brothers Bear and Bo Rinehart, sons of a pastor who ran a Christian camp, teamed up with other musicians to form the band. After an independent debut album, The Feature (2001), NEEDTOBREATHE signed with Atlantic Records and recorded Daylight (2006) in the United Kingdom. The band built its name on songs marked by faith, before reaching a wider audience while keeping lyrics grounded in spirituality.3 songs →Christian rock · Australia then Nashville, USANewsboysNewsboys was born in 1985 in Mooloolaba, in Australia's Queensland, under the provisional name The News. The band changed its name to avoid any confusion with the American act Huey Lewis and the News, then moved to the United States in 1987 after signing with the Refuge label. Fronted first by singer John James, the band played church basements before breaking into the Christian charts in the late 1980s with a pop rock sound that stood apart from the genre's clichés at the time.3 songs →Mainstream rap · Michigan, USANFNathan John Feuerstein was born on March 30, 1991, in Gladwin, Michigan. He grew up in a household marked by his parents' separation and his mother's opioid addiction, before being raised by his father. Music became an outlet for him early on: he released a first album under his real name, Moments, in 2010, then adopted the stage name NF in 2012 when he signed with the Christian label Xist Music. His first two albums under that name, Mansion (2015) and Therapy Session (2016), took him to the top of both the Christian and rap charts.3 songs →Contemporary worship · Alpharetta, Georgia (USA)North Point WorshipNorth Point Worship came to life in 2012 within North Point Community Church, a non-denominational church founded in 1995 in Alpharetta, an Atlanta suburb, by pastor Andy Stanley. First called North Point InsideOut, the group grew out of the church's youth ministry before becoming the official worship collective for North Point Ministries' six campuses. It took its current name, North Point Worship, in 2020.3 songs →Christian nu metal · San Diego, USAP.O.D.P.O.D., short for Payable On Death, was formed in 1992 in San Diego, California, around singer Sonny Sandoval, who comes from the San Ysidro neighborhood the band affectionately calls Southtown. Joined by guitarist Marcos Curiel, bassist Traa Daniels, and drummer Wuv Bernardo, the band shared an outspoken Christian faith that they chose to express through an alternative metal sound blended with rap, reggae, and hardcore, far removed from the conventions of classic Christian rock.3 songs →Collective worship · Atlanta, USAPassion MusicPassion was born in 1997 in Austin, Texas, when pastor Louie Giglio organized a first conference calling a generation of college students to live for what matters most, the glory of Jesus. Music quickly became the heart of these gatherings. In 2000, the movement founded its own label, sixstepsrecords, to capture and release the songs born at these conferences, often recorded live in front of tens of thousands of students gathered in a single stadium.3 songs →Contemporary worship · Atlanta, GeorgiaPat BarrettPat Barrett grew up in Georgia, in a family where his father was a pastor and his mother worked for the airline Delta. He picked up the guitar and started writing songs around age ten. While studying at the University of Georgia, he formed the band Unhindered with his childhood friend Ben Smith, his first steps in worship music, before joining the collective Housefires in 2014, where he became one of its lead voices and its main songwriter.3 songs →Contemporary worship · San Diego, CaliforniaPhil WickhamPhil Wickham was born on April 5, 1984, in San Diego, California, into a family steeped in Christian music: his father played in bands connected to the label Maranatha! Music, where his parents met. Surrounded by great worship songs from childhood, Phil began leading worship at his church at thirteen, before writing his own material. At eighteen, he recorded an independent debut project, Give You My World, released in 2003, which quickly caught the attention of American Christian record labels.3 songs →Festive contemporary worship · Melbourne, AustraliaPlanetshakersPlanetshakers was born in 1997 as a youth conference within Paradise Community Church in Adelaide, Australia, driven by the vision of Russell and Samantha Evans. The ministry moved to Melbourne in 2004, where Planetshakers Church became one of the country's largest Pentecostal congregations, claiming more than 21,000 members in 2022.3 songs →Contemporary worship · Colorado, USARed Rocks WorshipRed Rocks Church started in 2005 in the run down back room of an abandoned amusement park in Golden, Colorado. The small community grew quickly, from a hundred people to several thousand, then expanded across multiple campuses in the Denver area, reaching as far as Texas and Brussels, Belgium. Like many growing churches, it developed its own music ministry to carry its services: Red Rocks Worship.3 songs →Christian gospel · Okinawa, Japan上原令子 (Reiko Uehara)Reiko Uehara was born in Okinawa to an American father she never knew and a Japanese mother. Adopted at four months old by the Uehara family, she learned the circumstances of her birth at age five and went through a long period of loneliness and discrimination. As a teenager, she searched for her place through singing: at seventeen, she left for Tokyo and passed an audition with the Teichiku Records label, but returned to Okinawa just before her debut, overwhelmed by a sense of inner emptiness.3 songs →Christian pop punk · Canton, OhioRelient KRelient K was born in 1998 in Canton, Ohio, when Matt Thiessen and Matt Hoopes, still in high school and later students at Malone University, formed a band with bassist Brian Pittman. The name comes from Hoopes's car, a Plymouth Reliant K, with the spelling deliberately changed to avoid any trademark conflict. After a self titled debut album in 2000, the band established itself in the Christian rock and pop punk scene with lyrics mixing goofy humor and sincere questions about faith.3 songs →Folk rock worship · Northern IrelandRend CollectiveRend Collective was born in Bangor, Northern Ireland, within a young adults group at Bangor Elim church led by Gareth Gilkeson and Chris Llewellyn. What began as an informal time of worship, carried by acoustic instruments and an energy close to Irish folk, grew into a full band, Rend Collective Experiment, which released its first album, Organic Family Hymnal, in 2010.3 songs →Traditional gospel choir · Chicago Heights, Illinois, USARicky DillardRicky Dillard grew up in Chicago Heights, Illinois, and started singing in his church choir at the age of five. He led the youth choir at St Bethel Baptist Church, then founded the first gospel choir at Bloom Township High School in 1981. Between 1987 and 1988, he also spent time in Chicago's house music scene alongside figures like Frankie Knuckles, before returning fully to gospel.3 songs →Christian pop · Bonanza, Oregon (USA)Ryan StevensonRyan Stevenson grew up in Bonanza, a small rural town in Oregon, where he sang hymns from childhood. His mother, Phyllis, encouraged his passion for music and gave him his first guitar at eighteen, before passing away from bone cancer in 2009. After studying at Northwest Christian College in Eugene, Ryan Stevenson worked for seven years as a paramedic before devoting himself fully to music starting in 2003.3 songs →Contemporary worship · Pennsylvania and Ohio, USASeph SchlueterJoseph Schlueter, known as Seph Schlueter, was born on December 18, 1999, in Erie, Pennsylvania. He started releasing music independently in 2019, with songs like Fire Fall // Heaven Rain, before founding Damascus Worship, a worship movement within the Catholic Church based in Ohio, of which he became one of the leading faces. He built his profile locally this way, notably opening for artists like Brandon Lake and Phil Wickham.3 songs →Christian pop-rock · Anderson, Indiana, USASidewalk ProphetsSidewalk Prophets came together in 2003 on the campus of Anderson University in Indiana, when Dave Frey and Ben McDonald decided to start a band. A demo tape sent, without their knowledge, to a student contest opened the door to a first show, then to a deal with Word Records. Their first, self titled album came out independently in 2003, before the label released These Simple Truths in 2009.3 songs →Christian rock · Memphis, USASkilletSkillet was born in 1996 in Memphis, Tennessee, built around John Cooper, singer and bassist, and guitarist Ken Steorts. Signed almost immediately by the Christian label ForeFront Records, they recorded their first album at the historic Ardent Studios. Through several lineup changes, the band settled around John Cooper and his wife Korey Cooper, keyboardist and rhythm guitarist, since joined by drummer Jen Ledger and lead guitarist Seth Morrison.3 songs →Christian rap · Miami, Florida, USASocial Club MisfitsFern and Marty met in Florida and first formed the group under the name Social Club in 2011, before renaming it Social Club Misfits in 2016 when they signed with Capitol Christian Music Group. Fern, a pastor's son who served prison time for drug trafficking, and Marty, fired from his church after speaking out about abuse, both claim a story of breaking point before turning to a firm faith.3 songs →Contemporary worship · Nashville, TennesseeSteffany GretzingerSteffany Dawn Gretzinger was born on November 8, 1984, in Oskaloosa, Iowa, and grew up in Wooster, Ohio, in a family of musicians. In 2008, she moved to Redding, California, to join the ministry school at Bethel Church. There she became one of the standout voices of Bethel Music, the church's record label and musical collective. Her first solo album, The Undoing, came out in 2014 and reached number twenty on the Billboard 200, carried by the song "Out of Hiding (Father's Song)," performed with Amanda Cook.3 songs →Contemporary Christian pop · Paducah, Kentucky, USASteven Curtis ChapmanSteven Curtis Chapman grew up in Paducah, Kentucky, in a family where guitar and singing were part of everyday life thanks to his father, a music teacher. After abandoning medical studies, he moved to Nashville to devote himself to songwriting. Discovered through a song recorded by the group The Imperials, he signed with Sparrow Records and released his first album, First Hand, in 1987.3 songs →Hymns and contemporary worship · EnglandStuart TownendBorn in 1963 in West Yorkshire, England, the son of an Anglican pastor, Stuart Townend learned piano from age 7 and made a personal decision of faith at 13. After studying literature at the University of Sussex, he joined the editorial team at Kingsway in 1987, where he worked on song collections for British churches, before starting to write hymns himself.3 songs →Alternative rock · San Diego, CaliforniaSwitchfootSwitchfoot was born in 1996 in San Diego, California, when brothers Jon and Tim Foreman formed a band first called Chin Up before adopting the name Switchfoot, a surfing term for shifting your stance on the board. Jon Foreman, born in 1976, handles vocals and songwriting, joined by his brother Tim on bass and Chad Butler on drums. After two independent albums, the band signed with Columbia Records and released The Beautiful Letdown in 2003, carried by the songs Meant to Live and Dare You to Move.3 songs →Worship · Sapporo, Japan長沢崇史 (Takafumi Nagasawa)Originally from Hokkaido, Takafumi Nagasawa began writing hymns as early as elementary school, influenced by his older sister. He continued his training at the Kansai Bible Seminary, graduating in 2007, before launching several youth ministries, including the "Growing Up" program, and becoming a worship leader in many settings.3 songs →Contemporary gospel · Georgia, USATasha Cobbs LeonardTasha Cobbs Leonard grew up in Jesup, Georgia, where her father, Bishop Fritz Cobbs, leads Jesup New Life Ministries. It was there that she began singing and leading worship, long before she thought of pursuing a career. After years of serving behind the scenes, she moved to Atlanta in 2006 and joined dReam Center Church, where her voice began to draw attention well beyond the congregation's walls.3 songs →Gospel · Japan塩谷達也 & 塩谷美和 (Tatsuya & Miwa Shioya)Tatsuya Shioya, a graduate of International Christian University (ICU) who trained for a time in New York, composes songs from his morning devotional moments, which he calls his shabbat time with God. Miwa Shioya led the choir of an African American church serving a US military base in Japan, before becoming one of the few Japanese women passing on the spirit of Black gospel to congregations in her country.3 songs →Pop worship · Michigan then Texas, USATauren WellsTauren Wells was born on April 7, 1986, in Battle Creek, Michigan. While a student at Indiana Bible College, he co-founded the group Royal Tailor in 2004 with DJ Cox, Jeremy Guzman, and Blake Hubbard. The group released two albums, Black & White (2011) and a self-titled record (2013), both nominated for Grammy Awards in the contemporary Christian music category, before splitting up in 2015.3 songs →Christian rap · Lufkin, Texas, USATedashiiOriginally from Texas, Tedashii emerged on the Christian rap scene in 2004 and became one of the founding members of the 116 collective, alongside Lecrae and Trip Lee, at the label Reach Records. Recognizable for his deep voice and his ability to switch between flows, he released his first album, Kingdom People, in 2006, followed by Identity Crisis in 2009 and Blacklight in 2011, which established his high-energy style within American Christian hip-hop.3 songs →Christian rock, southern rock · Marietta, Georgia, USAThird DayThird Day was born in 1991 in Marietta, Georgia, around singer Mac Powell and guitarist Mark Lee, joined by Billy Wilkins and then by David Carr on drums and Tai Anderson on bass. The band's name refers to the resurrection of Jesus, which took place on the third day after his crucifixion. After two self-released albums, the band signed with Reunion Records in 1994 and found its first mainstream rock radio success with Nothing at All.3 songs →Interdenominational worship · JapanTHIRD PLACE WORSHIPTHIRD PLACE WORSHIP was born in the summer of 2018 in Japan, as an offshoot of an interdenominational ministry called Third Place. The band's name reflects this idea of three places: family, the church each person belongs to, and this third, shared space where believers from different backgrounds come together. All the members, musicians as well as sound engineers, video makers, and designers, are in their 20s and 30s and remain connected to their own local churches rather than to a single congregation.3 songs →Contemporary worship and adoration · England, United KingdomTim HughesTimothy David Llewelyn Hughes was born on July 23, 1977. The son of an Anglican pastor, he grew up in High Wycombe and then in Birmingham, where his father became vicar of St John's Church in Harborne. In 1997, at the invitation of pastor Mike Pilavachi, he began leading worship at the Soul Survivor festival, then succeeded Matt Redman as music director of Soul Survivor church in Watford.3 songs →Christian pop rock · Fairfax, Virginia, USATobyMacTobyMac is one of the rare Christian artists to have spanned four decades without ever leaving the top of the charts. As a student at Liberty University, he founded the trio DC Talk in 1987 with Michael Tait and Kevin Max, a groundbreaking mix of rap, rock, and pop that shook up the norms of contemporary Christian music and peaked with the double platinum album Jesus Freak in 1995.3 songs →Contemporary gospel · Maywood, Illinois, USATodd DulaneyTodd Dulaney was born on December 20, 1983, in Maywood, Illinois. Before becoming a singer, he was a top level athlete: drafted by the New York Mets in the 2002 draft, he played several seasons of professional baseball in the minor leagues. It was a coach who, during a training camp, discovered his voice and pushed him to sing the national anthem in front of the whole organization, a moment he describes as the spark toward another calling.3 songs →Contemporary gospel · South Carolina, USATravis GreeneTravis Montorius Greene was born on January 17, 1984, in Delaware and grew up in Warner Robins, Georgia. His father died of an aneurysm when he was only five years old, a trial that pushed him toward music as a means of expression from a very young age. As a child, he also survived a fall from the fourth floor of a building in Germany, an episode he would later describe as tangible proof of God's protection over his life.3 songs →Christian rap · Dallas, Texas, USATrip LeeAs a teenager, Trip Lee first dreamed of becoming a basketball player or a rapper before converting to Christianity at fourteen, a turning point that redirected all his ambition toward sharing the gospel through music. In Dallas, he met Lecrae in 2004 at a concert: Lecrae became his spiritual mentor and introduced him to the emerging world of Reach Records. Trip Lee released his first album, If They Only Knew, in 2006, right out of high school, and became one of the founding members of the 116 Clique, alongside Lecrae, Tedashii, and other Christian rappers.3 songs →Worship and prayer · Dallas, USAUPPERROOMUPPERROOM was born in April 2010 in Dallas, Texas, when Michael and Lorisa Miller opened a small prayer room in an office overlooking downtown, with a single goal: to 'minister to the Lord' through prayer and worship, day and night. What started as a quiet gathering gradually grew into a community, then a church, livestreamed and followed well beyond Texas.3 songs →Contemporary worship · Illinois, USAVertical WorshipVertical Worship came together in 2012 in Rolling Meadows, a suburb of Chicago, as the musical extension of Harvest Bible Chapel. First called Vertical Church Band, the group brought together musicians and worship leaders from the congregation to record the songs they used every Sunday. Their first album, Live Worship from Vertical Church, went straight into the top 10 of Billboard's Christian charts. The name Vertical Worship took hold a few years later, as the project grew beyond the walls of a single church.3 songs →Pop-folk worship · Nashville, TennesseeWe The KingdomWe The Kingdom was born in 2018 in Nashville, carried by a large family from Georgia. The group brings together Ed Cash, a well-known Nashville producer known for his work with Chris Tomlin, his children Scott Cash and Franni Cash, his son-in-law Martin Cash Arn, and their longtime friend Andrew Bergthold. The group's name comes from a simple conviction: God's kingdom is already present among us, here and now. This family dimension, rare in American Christian music, gives their songs a particular warmth, like worship sung as a family rather than from a stage.3 songs →Gospel singing · Sakai, Osaka, Japan森祐理 (Yuri Mori)Born on March 15 in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, Yuri Mori grows up immersed in classical singing and trains in opera and musical theater in the vocal music department of Kyoto City University of Arts. As a student, she attends Rakusai Christian Church, affiliated with the World Gospel Mission. A loss of voice disrupts her plans for an operatic career and pushes her to redirect her singing toward worship, where she finds a second wind that will become her calling.3 songs →Christian rock and country · Arkansas, USAZach WilliamsOriginally from Jonesboro, Arkansas, Zach Williams founded the southern rock band Zach Williams and the Reformation in 2007, releasing two independent albums with the group. The band split up in 2012 when Williams went through a spiritual turning point that reshaped his music and his life. He then joined Central Baptist Church in Jonesboro, where he formed the group Zach Williams and the Brothers of Grace with guitarist Robby Rigsbee, a transitional step between rock and worship that paved the way for his move into Christian music.3 songs →Modern hymns and worship · Castle Hill (Sydney), AustraliaCityAlightCityAlight is a music ministry of St Paul's Castle Hill, a church in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney. It has no fixed lineup: its members are whoever is available when a request comes in, and none of them works full time in music. Songs are written together, like a local church writing first for its own people, with Scripture-rich lyrics and simple melodies that even small churches can sing. Rich Thompson is one of its founders and songwriters. Lyrics and chord charts are free to use.4 songs →Contemporary worship · North Carolina, USACory AsburyCory Asbury grew up in western North Carolina, where he began leading worship in his church at seventeen. In 2005 he joined the International House of Prayer in Kansas City (IHOPKC) and stayed seven years. There he released Holy (2008), with Matt Gilman, then his first solo album, Let Me See Your Eyes (2009), on Forerunner Music. Associate worship pastor at New Life Church in Colorado Springs from 2012, he signed with Bethel Music in 2015 and appears on the collective's album Have It All (2016).4 songs →Congolese gospel · Lubumbashi, DR CongoDéborah LukaluDéborah Lukalu was born in Lubumbashi, in Haut-Katanga (DR Congo), and moved with her family to South Africa at nine, where she began singing gospel around the age of fourteen. She released the EP “Law Breaker” in 2015, then “Overflow” in 2016, presented as her first studio album. In 2017, “We Testify” made her known far beyond Johannesburg: the video passed six million views on YouTube by 2019, according to Music in Africa.4 songs →Gospel and worship · Kinshasa, DR CongoDena MwanaDena Mwana grew up in Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. At thirteen, she joined the Notre-Dame de Grâce choir, and five years later she became its music director. In 2006, she settled in Virginia, in the United States, and has split her life between America and the DR Congo since 2008. Her first album, “Hosanna,” recorded between Kinshasa and Virginia, came out in 2011 and laid the groundwork for a repertoire in French and Lingala.3 songs →Afro-gospel · Mbuji-Mayi, DR CongoFiston MbuyiFiston Mbuyi was born in 1987 in Mbuji-Mayi, in the former Kasaï-Oriental province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He became known in 2010 by taking part in the first edition of Vodacom Superstars, a music reality show in which he was among the favorites and lost the final to Innoss'B. He then moved from secular music to gospel, with a style described as afro-gospel that he plays notably on guitar. The Congolese press ranks him among the figures of the new generation of gospel in the DR Congo.3 songs →Worship and modern hymns · England, UKGraham KendrickBorn on August 2, 1950 in England, Graham Kendrick began writing songs in the late 1960s and started out with the Christian beat group Whispers of Truth. He released his first solo album, Footsteps on the Sea, in 1972, recorded with guitarist Gordon Giltrap, and went on to record across several decades: his website counts more than 450 songs written and recorded. He writes for the congregation, with songs meant to be sung together, including Shine, Jesus, Shine, written in 1987, The Servant King and Knowing You.3 songs →Catholic pop worship · Avignon, FranceHopenHopen was born at the end of 2013 from four brothers, Antoine, Camille, Armand, and Charles Auclair, from Avignon and raised in a family where faith is present. The name combines “hope” and “open,” to share hope with as many people as possible. The band turned to pop worship, a style nourished by groups such as Hillsong, Elevation Worship, Exo, and Glorious, which they discovered very young. Their music, blending pop and electro-pop, aims to get a congregation singing, especially young people.3 songs →Gospel and worship · Montfermeil, FranceJonathan C. GambelaJonathan C. Gambela was born in Montfermeil to Congolese parents and began in music with the group Mekaddishkem, alongside the rapper Esdras. In 2020 he went solo with the singles “Esprit de Dieu” and then “Onction.” His first album, “Mon cœur fléchit,” came out on March 12, 2021, with ten tracks. It was followed by the live album “Je t'adore” in 2023, then “Un jour nouveau,” fifteen tracks, in January 2024, including “Ami fidèle” and “Sabaoth.”4 songs →Contemporary worship · Atlanta, USAKristian StanfillBorn in Marietta, Georgia, Kristian Stanfill took up the guitar at thirteen and led worship in his church's Sunday school at fifteen. After studying at Samford University, he led worship at North Point Community Church in Alpharetta. In 2005 he joined the Passion organization and became one of its main worship leaders. He released the EP Hello independently in 2007, then signed in 2008 with sixstepsrecords, a label tied to Capitol Christian Music Group.4 songs →Rock worship · Alaska and California, USALincoln BrewsterLincoln Brewster was born in 1971 in Alaska, where he grew up. A precocious musician, he played drums, mandolin and then electric guitar from childhood. Hired as lead guitarist on Steve Perry's project, he toured with him in 1994 and 1995. He released his first album, Lincoln Brewster, in 1999 on Integrity Music, on its Vertical Music label, and became worship pastor at Bayside Church in Granite Bay, California, in 2001.3 songs →Folk, then gospel · Fukuoka, Japan本田路津子 (Rutsuko Honda)Born on January 6, 1949 in Ōmuta, in Fukuoka Prefecture, Rutsuko Honda grew up in Niigata, then studied English literature at Obirin University in Tokyo. In 1970, she won the folk contest ハルミラフォークコンテスト singing Joan Baez's Silkie, signed with CBS/Sony, and released her first single, 秋でもないのに. With 一人の手 (1971) and then 耳をすましてごらん (1972), the theme of the NHK morning drama 藍より青く, she was invited two years in a row to the Kōhaku Uta Gassen, NHK's big year-end music show.4 songs →Japanese pop, then church music · Tokyo, Japan久米小百合 (Sayuri Kume)Born on May 11, 1958 in Kunitachi, near Tokyo, Sayuri Kume made her debut in 1979 under the name Saki Kubota with the single 異邦人 (Ihōjin), released on October 1 by CBS/Sony and conceived as a Silk Road theme. The song stayed at number one for three weeks in a row on the TV music show ザ・ベストテン and sold more than 1.4 million copies. She released seven albums, then left the commercial stage with a farewell concert on November 26, 1984 at the Kudankaikan hall in Tokyo.3 songs →Contemporary gospel · Texas, USATamela MannTamela Mann grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, in the Church of God in Christ. By the age of twelve she was singing in her church's adult choir and often took the solos. She became known as part of Kirk Franklin and the Family, where she was one of the lead voices on several songs, and worked with Yolanda Adams, Fred Hammond and Mary J. Blige. In 2005 she launched her solo career with Gotta Keep Movin' on her own label, Tillymann Music Group.4 songs →Gospel · Tokyo, Japan亀渕友香 (Yuka Kamebuchi)Born on November 3, 1944 in Sapporo and raised in Tokyo, Yuka Kamebuchi grew up with jazz and American music, and was deeply influenced by the gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, whom she discovered in the film Jazz on a Summer's Day. She made her debut in 1968 as the vocalist of the rhythm and blues group Ricky & 960 lbs., then recorded as a soloist, notably the album Touch Me, Yuka (1974), before building a career in jazz, musical theater, film music, and vocal coaching.4 songs →Catholic Christian reggae · Boulogne-Billancourt, FranceLes GuetteursLes Guetteurs began in Boulogne-Billancourt, in the Paris region, around Fratoun, a singer and guitarist who founded the band as a teenager to sing his Catholic faith. The name refers to the “watchman” in the book of Ezekiel (chapter 33, verse 7). In a French reggae scene that often draws on Bob Marley, Groundation, or Steel Pulse, they root their lyrics in the Gospel rather than in Rastafari. Their songs alternate between French and English, such as “Stay With Me” and “No More Trouble” on “Tempête.”4 songs →German-language worship · Ravensburg, GermanyAlbert FreyBorn on May 29, 1964 near Ravensburg, Germany, Albert Frey starts on piano and recorder at the age of seven, then takes up clarinet and guitar, and plays in school bands before joining the Christian rock band Effata. He trains in sound engineering in the early 1990s and opens his own recording studio. Since 1989 he has been a composer, producer and worship leader at the Immanuel-Lobpreis-Werkstatt in Ravensburg, which he founded.4 songs →Afro-gospel and contemporary worship · Basingstoke, EnglandCalledOut MusicCalledOut Music is a solo artist, Samuel Nwachukwu in real life, from Basingstoke in the south of England. He launched his career in 2016 with the single Working on Me, then released the EP The Collection and the album In Due Time (Genesis) in November 2018 on the label HFP Music. His music blends Afro-gospel, R&B and contemporary worship, and he writes, sings and produces his own songs.5 songs →Worship · Nashville (Tennessee), USADon MoenBorn on June 29, 1950, Don Moen grew up in Two Harbors, Minnesota, then studied at Oral Roberts University. For about ten years he was a Living Sound musician with Terry Law Ministries. He joined Integrity in 1984 and worked there for more than twenty years, notably as creative director and then president of Integrity Music. He produced eleven volumes of the Hosanna! Music series, and the album Give Thanks (1986) became the label's best seller.4 songs →Christian rap and hip-hop · Custom House (East London), United KingdomGuvna BGuvna B comes from Custom House, in the London borough of Newham, and brings a British rap with touches of grime, carried by a Christian message. He released the EP Looking Out The Window in 2007, then his first album, The Narrow Road, in 2008, followed by Scrapbook (2011). With Odd1Out (2013) he became the first rapper to top the Official Christian and Gospel albums chart in the UK, then followed with Scrapbook II (2014) and Secret World (2015).5 songs →Choir gospel · Brooklyn (New York), United StatesHezekiah WalkerA native of Brooklyn, New York, Hezekiah Walker founded the Love Fellowship Crusade Choir in 1985, starting with about a dozen members. The group released I'll Make It (1987), then joined Benson Records, where Live in Toronto (1993) and Live in Atlanta at Morehouse College (1994) appeared. The latter earned him a Grammy Award for Best Gospel Album by a Choir or Chorus. Walker also leads the choir of his church, Love Fellowship Tabernacle, which recorded Love Is Live! in 2001, also honored at the Grammy Awards.4 songs →Country gospel and worship · Nashville, USAHillary ScottHillary Scott is also known as one of the voices of the country group Lady A. In 2016 she released Love Remains on EMI Nashville, a Christian music album credited to Hillary Scott & The Scott Family, with her parents Linda Davis and Lang Scott and her sister Rylee. Produced by Ricky Skaggs, the record blends gospel, bluegrass, country and pop, with hymns like Come Thou Fount and original songs. It grew out of hymn recordings made as a family, begun in 2011.5 songs →Gospel · West Memphis (Arkansas), USAJekalyn CarrJekalyn Carr began singing and speaking in public as a teenager. Her album Greater Is Coming came out in 2013 on Lunjeal Music Group, the label of It's Gonna Happen (2014), The Life Project (2016), One Nation Under God (2018) and Changing Your Story (2020). The Life Project, whose first single is You're Bigger, reached number one on Billboard's gospel albums chart. In 2018 she also published a book titled You Will Win.5 songs →Worship · Brighton, United KingdomLou FellinghamLou Fellingham comes from Brighton, on the south coast of England. She is the singer of Phatfish, a worship band formed in Brighton in 1994, with which she recorded eight albums, toured the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States, and led worship at the Stoneleigh Bible Weeks. The band gave its final concerts in March 2014. She sang songs there that many churches have taken up, including Holy Holy and There Is a Day.5 songs →Spanish-language pop and worship · Madrid, SpainMarcos VidalMarcos Vidal is a Spanish singer-songwriter based in Madrid who sings in Spanish, mixing pop with congregational worship. He began making music in his local community as early as 1984 and released his first album, Buscadme y viviréis, in 1990. With Cara a cara (1996) he signed with Sparrow Records in the United States. Mi regalo (1997) earned him a Dove Award nomination for best Spanish-language album, and the live album Alabanza y adoración en vivo came out in 2003.4 songs →Gospel and worship · London, United KingdomNoel RobinsonNoel Robinson was born in London in 1962 and grew up in the north-west of the capital, in a Church of God of Prophecy congregation. A guitarist by training, he studied jazz improvisation and composition, then worked as musical director of BBC gospel programmes, which led him to direct the music for Ron Kenoly. He also played guitar in Graham Kendrick's band on the Prayer for Revival tour. Today he describes himself as a worship leader, music pastor, songwriter and producer.5 songs →German-language worship · Bad Gandersheim, GermanyOutbreakbandOutbreakband began in 2007 in Bad Gandersheim, Lower Saxony, within the youth events of the Glaubenszentrum. Its name comes from Outbreak, a highlight of those events. The band sings in German and plays regularly at the Teenstreet congress, at festivals and at worship nights. Its first albums are In deinem Licht (2008), Alles Drin (2009) and Real Love (2011). The Glaubenszentrum is a Christian Bible training centre in Bad Gandersheim.5 songs →Christian pop and folk · Yorkshire, UKPhilippa HannaPhilippa Hanna is a singer and songwriter from Yorkshire, England. Her music blends pop, folk and country influences. Her first album, Watching Me, came out in 2007, followed by Taste (2009) and Through the Woods (2013), partly funded by a crowdfunding campaign. Speed of Light (2016) and Come Back Fighting (2017) came next. She performs solo and with a band, in churches and at festivals, including New Wine and Big Church Day Out.5 songs →Pop and electronic worship · NetherlandsReyerReyer is a Dutch worship leader, songwriter and producer who makes music his full-time job. He first drew attention with danceable remixes of contemporary worship songs, such as Oceans or God's Great Dance Floor, whose videos circulate widely on YouTube. His first Dutch album, Eeuwig Licht ("everlasting light"), came out in 2014 and won him the Dutch Dove Award for best new worship artist in 2015, according to his biographies. Several of his songs are used in churches across the Netherlands.5 songs →Soul and gospel · Umeå, SwedenSamuel LjungblahdSamuel Ljungblahd is a Swedish soul and gospel singer and songwriter, born in Umeå. He began his musical training in the Salvation Army, then moved to Stockholm around age 20 to sing in gospel choirs, including Vasa Gospel. He recorded an EP with Stefan Olsson, then released his first album, Samuel Ljungblahd, in February 2005. Reason Why (2007) first came out only in Norway, and his audience is mainly found in Swedish free churches.4 songs →Church songs and worship · NetherlandsSelaSela is a Dutch band born in 2005 from an HGJB project that wanted to encourage praise and worship in churches. Its name comes from the psalm word "selah", a pause before the music picks up again. The band writes new songs for the church so that believers can sing together and give glory to God, in the line of the old hymns. Hans Maat wrote much of the lyrics. The success of the first album, U (2005), led the band to carry on.4 songs →Worship, psalms and hymns · Texas, USAShane & ShaneShane & Shane is a worship duo made up of Shane Barnard and Shane Everett, two Texan musicians who met at Texas A&M University, where Barnard led worship at the Breakaway student gathering. The duo has been active since 2001 and its first album under this name, Psalms, came out in 2002 on Inpop Records. The repertoire grew around psalms and hymns, with Pages (2007), Everything Is Different (2009), The One You Need (2011) and Bring Your Nothing (2013).5 songs →Gospel · Durham (North Carolina), United StatesShirley CaesarBorn in 1938 in Durham, North Carolina, Shirley Caesar sang as a child across the Carolinas, then joined Albertina Walker's Caravans in 1958 at age 19. With them she recorded Sweeping Through the City and No Coward Soldier, among others. After eight years she signed a solo deal with Hob Records, whose first album was I'll Go. In 1971 she won her first Grammy Award for Put Your Hand in the Hand of the Man from Galilee, and in 1975 No Charge became her first gold record.5 songs →Contemporary gospel · London, UKVolney Morgan & New-YeVolney Morgan & New-Ye is a gospel group based in London. It grew out of a circle of friends from the north of the city, around singer, writer and leader Volney Morgan. Its style is often described as modern soul gospel, with R&B in the mix. After the EP Pick Up the Pieces (2015), it released the album Focus (2016), reissued as a Deluxe edition in 2017, which, according to the group's website, reached number one on the UK iTunes Christian and gospel chart.5 songs →Worship and gospel · Orlando (Florida), United StatesWilliam McDowellBorn in 1976 in Cincinnati, Ohio, William McDowell moved to Orlando to study at Full Sail University, where he earned a degree in Entertainment Business. He then served as music director for worship leader Ron Kenoly, who mentored him, and continued his formation under Sam Hinn. His first album, As We Worship, came out on February 3, 2009 on Entertainment One Music and reached number 3 on Billboard's gospel albums chart. It includes I Give Myself Away, which McDowell had put online before the record was released.4 songs →Contemporary gospel · Houston (Texas), United StatesYolanda AdamsBorn in 1961 in Houston, Texas, Yolanda Adams was noticed as a lead singer with Houston's Southeast Inspirational Choir, whose single For My Liberty came out in 1982. She then signed with Sound of Gospel, which released her first album, Just as I Am, in 1987. In 1990 producer Ben Tankard discovered her and signed her to his label Tribute Records: Through the Storm followed in 1991, then Save the World in 1993, with The Battle Is the Lord's, which became her signature song.5 songs →
Playlists
Songs to Hold On Through TrialsWhen the storm drags on, singing is a form of resistance: you tell your soul again what is true. These songs have carried many Christians through. Each one is connected to the verse that lights it up.Discover the playlist →Songs for a Time of WorshipWorship recenters everything: you stop staring at your circumstances and look at God. A playlist for personal worship: at dawn, in the car, or in the secret place.Discover the playlist →Christmas Worship Songs: The Christian PlaylistA Spotify playlist of modern Christmas worship songs from today's worship bands. Use it to adore Jesus through Advent, on Christmas Eve or in the car, whether you are alone or with your whole family.Discover the playlist →Classic Christmas Hymns: The Timeless PlaylistThe great traditional Christmas hymns, sung by choirs in their classic versions. A Spotify playlist for church, for Christmas Eve or for a quiet moment of reflection with the people you love.Discover the playlist →Christian Christmas Songs for Kids: The PlaylistSimple, joyful Christian Christmas songs that are easy to sing and act out, for children and for the people around them. A Spotify playlist for Sunday school, home, the car or Christmas Eve.Discover the playlist →