Nichole Nordeman

Contemporary Christian singer and songwriter Nichole Nordeman spent her formative years in Colorado before taking a job as a waitress in Los Angeles, where she submitted an entry to a competition organized by the Gospel Music Association’s Academy of Gospel Music Arts. Her winning composition, “Why,” presented the crucifixion through the eyes of a child and secured the release of her debut album, Wide Eyed. That project yielded four Christian adult contemporary chart singles—“To Know You,” “Who You Are,” “I Wish the Same,” and the title track—while earning Nordeman Dove Award nominations for Best New Artist in 1999 and Best Female Vocalist in 2000.

In May 2000 she issued her sophomore effort, This Mystery, which received comparable critical acclaim. Two years later the Dove Award-winning Woven & Spun delivered a carefully balanced fusion of worship and pop material, a direction Nordeman extended with 2005’s Brave, an album also honored by the Gospel Music Association. Her inaugural retrospective, Recollection: The Best of Nichole Nordeman, appeared in 2007 and added two previously unreleased tracks, yet nearly eight years passed before another studio album arrived. Throughout that interval she prioritized family life while continuing to write, both through outside collaborations and by supplying original songs to projects such as the 2010 Veggie Tales film.

Nordeman returned in 2015 with the anticipated six-song EP The Unmaking, marking her third straight entry on the Billboard 200. Her fifth full-length studio album, Every Mile Mattered, followed in 2017, again charting on the Billboard 200 and becoming her first Christian chart-topper.