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Michael W.Smith music biography continued...

religious and secular markets. Smith was born in Kenova, West Virginia, on October 7, 1957. He became a devout Christian at age ten and spent his teens hanging around with church groups that gathered to play and make music. He moved to Nashville in 1978 to pursue a career as a songwriter and was signed with Meadowgreen Music as a staff writer, where over the next few years he provided gospel hits for such artists as Sandi Patti, Kathy Troccoli, Bill Gaither and Amy Grant. He began touring as a keyboardist with Grant in 1982 and the following year, after releasing his first album, The Michael W. Smith Project, became her opening act. Smith's debut album garnered him a Grammy nomination for Best Gospel Performance and he became a headliner in his own right following the release of his second album, Michael W. Smith 2.



Soon after he had solidified his success in the CCM world, Smith incorporated more of a rock sound into his music to appeal to a more mainstream and broader audience. In 1990, he released Go West Young Man, which was his first mainstream effort, including the mainstream crossover hit "Place in This World," which peaked at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100. That album was followed by 1992s Change Your World (which included the #1 adult contemporary hit "I Will Be Here For You"). Smith continued to record for both the secular and religious markets throughout the 90s and into the new millennium. To date, he has picked up three Grammy awards and thirty-four Dove awards. Over the course of his career, he has sold more than 13 million albums and he has recorded 29 number-one hit songs, fourteen gold albums, and five platinum albums. Smith is also an American Music Award recipient and he was named one of People magazine's most beautiful people. But above all, Smitty, as he is known in the industry, has been an inspiration to the multitude of fans who still hang on his every lyric.