Hillsong Worship is the worship collective of Hillsong Church, founded in 1983 in Sydney, Australia. Known until 2014 as Hillsong Live, it has written songs sung around the world such as What a Beautiful Name, which won a Grammy Award in 2018, as well as Mighty to Save and Cornerstone.
Hillsong 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.
In 1996, a distribution deal with the American label Integrity Music allowed the song Shout to the Lord to cross Australia's borders and take hold in churches worldwide. The collective changed its name to Hillsong Worship in 2014 and moved through several generations of leaders, from Darlene Zschech to Brooke Ligertwood, by way of Joel Houston, Reuben Morgan and Ben Fielding, while racking up twelve entries on the Billboard charts and a Grammy Award in 2018.
- Origin
- Sydney, Australia
- Style
- Contemporary worship
- Active since
- 1983 (known as Hillsong Live until 2014)
- Good to know
- The collective is behind What a Beautiful Name, a song written by Brooke Ligertwood and Ben Fielding, which spent thirty seven weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot Christian Songs chart and won a Grammy Award in 2018.
How did Hillsong Worship start?
The worship ministry was born with the church itself, in 1983, when Hillsong Church opened its doors in the suburbs of Sydney under the leadership of Brian and Bobbie Houston. The weekly services quickly became a laboratory for new songs, recorded in front of a congregation and released under the name Hillsong Live, a practice that would give rise to several dozen live albums over four decades.
The international turning point came in 1996, when the label Integrity Music distributed Shout to the Lord, a song written by Darlene Zschech that became a staple of evangelical services well beyond Australia. In 2014, the collective dropped the name Hillsong Live for Hillsong Worship, a way of asserting its own identity as Hillsong Church spread to several countries.
What makes Hillsong Worship distinctive?
Hillsong Worship built its reputation on a string of songs that became staples of contemporary worship, like Mighty to Save, Cornerstone and What a Beautiful Name. The latter, written by Brooke Ligertwood and Ben Fielding and released on the album Let There Be Light in 2017, spent thirty seven weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot Christian Songs chart and won a Grammy Award in 2018, a rare longevity for a Christian song.
Where should you start with Hillsong Worship?
What a Beautiful Name remains the best entry point for understanding the group's influence on worship around the world. To keep listening, more recent tracks like Good News or Yahweh Great I Am, taken from the album Great I Am, show that the collective keeps renewing its catalog with new voices like Alexander Pappas, while holding on to the same intention: making Scripture singable in any church.
songs
Good News
Performed with Alexander Pappas and taken from the album Great I Am, this song announces the good news of the gospel in an acoustic arrangement.
Only Jesus
A song from the same album, centered on the sufficiency of Jesus, here in an acoustic version.
Yahweh Great I Am
Also sung with Alexander Pappas, this track takes up the name God reveals to Moses, I Am, as a cry of adoration.
Discography
- 2025Great I Am
- 2022Team Night
- 2021These Same Skies
- 2020Take Heart (Again)
- 2019Awake· Dove Award for Worship Album of the Year in 2020
- 2018There Is More
- 2016Let There Be Light· Contains What a Beautiful Name
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Frequently asked questions
Who is Hillsong Worship?
Hillsong Worship is the worship collective of Hillsong Church, a church founded in 1983 in Sydney, Australia. Known until 2014 as Hillsong Live, it has written songs sung in churches all over the world, including What a Beautiful Name, Mighty to Save and Cornerstone.
What is Hillsong Worship's best known song?
What a Beautiful Name, written by Brooke Ligertwood and Ben Fielding and released in 2017, is the group's most famous song. It spent thirty seven weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot Christian Songs chart and won a Grammy Award in 2018.
Is Hillsong Worship Christian?
Yes, Hillsong Worship is the worship ministry of an evangelical Pentecostal church, Hillsong Church. Its songs are written to be used in services and draw on biblical themes such as grace, salvation and adoration.
Where can you listen to Hillsong Worship?
The group's albums are available on streaming platforms like Spotify, Deezer and Apple Music, as well as on its official YouTube channel, which has several million subscribers.
How long has Hillsong Worship been around?
The ministry has existed since 1983, the year Hillsong Church was founded. It went by the name Hillsong Live until 2014, when it adopted its current name.
Are there French versions of Hillsong Worship's songs?
Several songs have been adapted into French by French-speaking worship collectives, notably around the themes of grace and identity in Christ, subjects that recur throughout Hillsong Worship's catalog.