One of the most lauded and successful contemporary Christian artists of his generation, Steven Curtis Chapman rose to prominence in the late 1980s with a sound that crossed country and folk influences with soft rock and orchestrated pop. Following early hits like the GMA Dove Award-winning "His Eyes" off 1988's Real Life Conversations, and the title track to 1989's More to This Life, Chapman achieved even wider mainstream recognition, balancing his dedication to his Christian fan base with his knack for radio-friendly hooks. A multiple Grammy winner, including for 1990's For the Sake of the Call and 2004's All Things New, Chapman remains a chart favorite with tens of charting Top Ten Billboard Christian Albums, including 2009's Beauty Will Rise and 2013's The Glorious Unfolding. He's also a contender for taking home the most GMA Dove Awards. Along with his more commercial pop albums, Chapman remains connected to his roots, issuing the acoustic country album Deep Roots in 2013 and the Christian worship album Worship and Believe in 2016. He topped the bluegrass charts in 2019 with the companion Deeper Roots: Where the Bluegrass Grows, before delivering 2022's Still.

Born in 1962 and raised in Paducah, Kentucky, Chapman learned to play several instruments while hanging out in his father's music store, excelling at guitar and piano. As a young man, he enrolled as a pre-med student at Anderson College in Indiana. He soon decided to pursue a music career and dropped out to go to Nashville, where he began working in a music show at Opryland USA. When not performing, he was busy writing songs, a skill he learned from his father. One of Chapman's tunes was recorded by the Imperials, a prominent gospel group, marking the beginning of his songwriting success; many of gospel and country's brightest stars, including Sandi Patti, Billy Dean, Glen Campbell, and Roger Whittaker have recorded Chapman's songs.

Although several different labels and music publishers were interested in him by 1987, he decided to sign with the major Christian music company Sparrow. That year he cut his first album, First Hand. The first single released from the album, "Weak Days," made it to number two on the contemporary Christian chart. His second album, 1988's Real Life Conversations, earned him four more hits, including the number one song "His Eyes." Co-written with James Isaac Elliott, it earned the Contemporary Recorded Song of the Year award from the Gospel Music Association in 1989. That year, he also won a GMA award for Best Songwriter of the Year. Released later that year, his third album, More to This Life, contained four number one hits and in 1990 earned him an unprecedented ten nominations at the GMA Awards (he won five). His next album, For the Sake of the Call, which contained five number one singles and earned him another slew of GMA awards and his first Grammy in the Best Pop Gospel Album category, only strengthened his position as the king of Christian music.

In 1992, Chapman made a successful bid to attract a more mainstream audience with The Great Adventure, which also won a Grammy, and its accompanying title-track video. When Sparrow Records was purchased by EMI/Liberty, they began marketing the album in discount stores, and in 1993, it went gold. Also released in 1993 (both as a video and CD), The Live Adventure won more GMA awards and also earned Chapman a new award from American Songwriter magazine, Songwriter and Artist of the Year. Chapman released his seventh album, Heaven in the Real World, in 1994 and embarked on a major tour. In 1996, Chapman released Signs of Life, which was followed three years later by Speechless.

Though Chapman's albums had always done well on the Billboard CCM charts, 2001's Declaration, earned him even more attention when it hit the Top 200. Both it and 2002's All About Love peaked in the Top 15, and his 2004 record, All Things New, made it to number 22. In September 2005, in time for the holiday season, Chapman released All I Really Want for Christmas, and the following year Musical Blessing came out. Beauty Will Rise, a tribute written in the wake of the death of his daughter Maria, arrived in 2009.

Following 2011's Re:Creation, he left his longtime label Sparrow Records and signed with Reunion Records, which released Joy, Chapman's third Christmas album, in 2012. His first album of all-new material in four years, The Glorious Unfolding arrived in 2013, as did the acoustic- and bluegrass-focused Deep Roots. Another seasonal album, Christmas Hymns, followed a year later.

After nearly three decades of recording, Chapman signed with PLG (Provident Label Group) and released his first worship album, Worship and Believe, in 2016. A companion album to Deep Roots, Deeper Roots: Where the Bluegrass Grows, arrived in 2019 and hit number one on Billboard's Bluegrass charts. The singer's third PLG release, Still, arrived in October 2022 and found Chapman co-writing and producing alongside Bryan Fowler and Micah Kuiper. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi