Michael W Smith

American Musician

Multi-Platinum artist, best-selling author and acclaimed actor Michael W. Smith continues to live out his dream; he releases new music regularly and performs around the world to sold-out crowds of loyal and inspired fans. During Michael’s storied career, he’s not only been honored with three Grammy Awards, 45 Dove Awards, an American Music Award and has sold more than 15 million albums, he’s also given back to the global community. Michael has raised funds to battle AIDS in Africa alongside longtime friend Bono, started Rocketown, a safe haven for young people in Tennessee to meet and find hope, and has helped more than 70,000 children’s lives through Compassion International.

In many ways, Michael is a statesman, at the fulcrum of Christian music in pivotal moments. And like the ‘heart of a lion’ that is said to never go away, Michael isn’t content staying with the equilibrium. With that drive and a non-stop touring and recording schedule, Michael hit a wall most creative people hit at some point in their careers.

“I talked with my team at the beginning of 2017 and told them I’m not going to do another record unless I can write some stuff that really excites me,” he explains. “I was still grieving over my dad passing in November of 2015 and I thought it might be two or three years before I did any recording at all, if I ever actually did record at all.”

That impasse lasted about two weeks…all it took was the divisive national sentiment of 2017 and the mean-spirited banter on social media to once again ignite the creative fires. In February 2018, this prolific artist comes roaring back with not one, but two full-length albums from Rocketown Records and The Fuel Music: both a USA Today and Yahoo! Music-acclaimed studio album A Million Lights (Feb. 16) and Surrounded (Feb. 23), his first live worship recording since 2014’s Sovereign that became a top 10 Billboard 200, No. 1-selling Christian album.

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Michael embarks on his “Surrounded By A Million Lights World Tour” March 2017. And along with the tour, more adventurous projects are in the works for Smith. Even as A Million Lights and Surrounded sparked to life, Smith is diving into other projects, each one enhancing the others in ways he never experienced before. From mapping out a memoir of lessons learned from his father to completing a symphonic composition, he’s realizing a wide range of ambitions and senses a convergence of all he’s done and has yet to do.

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“For me, though, music is always my first creative outlet,” he clarifies. “Forever, until the world ends, music is the most powerful language there is. It can transform your life on every level, not just the spiritual. It can help people reconnect with why they’re here. That’s what I’m doing with A Million Lights and Surrounded.”