Christian Music Online

Amy Grant

September 6, 2005 – 9:41 am

Amy Grant looks for new direction with ‘Three Wishes’

(NBC)
‘Wishes’ granted: Christian singer-songwriter Amy Grant makes her reality show host debut Sept. 23 on “Three Wishes.”

At the height of her career, Amy Grant was in an extraordinary position in the music industry. Her songs were played on American Bandstand and she was a guest on The 700 Club.

The singer-songwriter was a groundbreaker. She was the most successful artist to emerge from the contemporary Christian music scene, in terms of record sales and impact. She helped change the face of the genre.

But entertainment careers wax and wane, and Grant’s is no exception. It has been eight years, an eternity in pop music, since she enjoyed a mainstream-radio hit.

Her career is about to enter a new phase, as she gets ready to star in a reality show called “Three Wishes” that premieres Sept. 23 on NBC. Hosting a TV show may seem like an odd turn, but it’s just the latest twist for a woman who has lived more than half her life in the public eye.

“The music industry has changed so much,” Grant says by phone while driving to her office in Nashville. “Musically, I don’t really know what it is I’m trying to do.”

It was 20 years ago that Grant put Christian music on the mainstream radar. That was when she released “Unguarded,” an explosive album that was marketed simultaneously to pop and Christian audiences. The curly-haired singer hit the mainstream Top 40 with the engaging “Find a Way,” and a new kind of entertainment career was launched.

Grant, now 44, released her first album in 1978 and more than a dozen have followed, each showcasing her insightful way with lyrics and her dark, dusky voice. While “Unguarded” introduced her to the secular world, the 5-million-selling disc “Heart in Motion” (1991) and such tunes as “Baby Baby” and “I Will Remember You” made her a bona fide pop star.

But for the first time since she was a teenager, music will take a back seat.

“What I’m going to do this year is mostly do TV instead of concerts,” she says, although she’s performing in a few cities through October, according to pollstar.com. “Sometimes, it’s nice to take a break, even from something you love doing.”

Although her pop success made her a household name, her inspirational recordings form her greatest legacy.

Her five Grammys are for religious recordings. The 1982 disc “Age to Age” is considered the first Christian-music album to be certified platinum by the Rec-ording Industry Association of America, signifying a million discs sold. The brutally candid 1988 album “Lead Me On” was named the No. 1 Christian-music album of all time in a CCM (Contemporary Christian Music) magazine poll five years ago.

In 2001, the RIAA chose her recording of “El Shaddai” as one of the most significant songs of the 20th century, right behind Elton John’s “Candle in the Wind” and ahead of such recordings as Jimi Hendrix’s “All Along the Watchtower” and Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi,” which Grant covered on her 1994 “House of Love” album.

Late last year her manager got word of the TV show, in which she’ll travel to different towns and help make people’s wishes come true. Even though Grant’s profile wasn’t particularly high at the time, “Three Wishes” executive producer Andrew Glassman says she was his first choice for the job.

“She was the only person we ever considered,” he says. “On the first day of working on the show, we kind of sat down before we had any idea what the show was exactly going to be. We thought, ‘Whose public persona represents the warmth and compassion that we want the show to be about?’ Amy’s name was the very first thing that popped into my mind.”

So far, the show has filmed episodes in Northern California, Iowa and New Mexico. Everywhere the crew goes, Glassman says, the reaction is the same: People are drawn to Grant not only for her fame, but also for her unforced natural warmth.

He recalls meeting some adolescent girls while taping the pilot. Grant left for four days for other commitments, he says, but when she returned she remembered the name of each youngster she had met.

“When she’s there with you, she’s really there,” he says. “She really listens.”

She seems content and optimistic, saying the TV show is injecting new energy into her career.

“Everything in my career felt scattered,” she says. “I hadn’t had any radio success for a while. I feel artistically I’m at the best place I’ve ever been, but activity-wise I felt like I was dumbing down, because there was not enough juice behind me. It all felt disorganized.”

By Randy Cordova | Gannett News Service

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