Matthew West

Before becoming an award-winning CCM artist, Matthew Western world began his professional career penning hits for other artists, including Billy Ray Cyrus, Rascal Flatts, and Stage of Sophistication. A high-school football superstar, he’d originally hoped to wait college on the sports scholarship; rather, West recognized a four-year music scholarship or grant from Millikin School, where he finished up documenting several single albums just before graduating in 1999. On the effectiveness of the religious pop tunes that made an appearance on September Sunlight (1997), Every Stage of just how (1998), and Sellout (2002), he started landing are a songwriter for hire. Western also drew curiosity from Common South Information, who authorized the designer and released his major-label debut, the Dove Award-winning Happy, in 2003. Background adopted in 2005, and Western backed the album’s launch using the 1st headlining tour of his profession. Excessive usage of his tone of voice led to serious medical complications, though, forcing Western to undergo neck medical procedures in 2007 to eliminate multiple polyps. Carrying out a amount of vocal rest, he came back in 2008 with Something to state. The album’s lead solitary, “YOU MIGHT BE Everything,” became the most-played track on Christian radio in 2008, and Western — now completely healed and performing easily — quickly came back to the studio room to record 2010’s THE STORYPLOT you will ever have, which also charted well. Any occasion album, THE CENTER of Christmas, found its way to 2011, and was accompanied by another studio room record, In to the Light, in 2012. 3 years later on, 2015’s Live Forever would end up being another landmark recording for West, achieving number one around the Billboard Christian Albums Graph and quantity 51 at the top 200.