Rebecca St. James

Rebecca St. James first appeared on the contemporary Christian scene as a teenager in the early 1990s and later built parallel careers in acting and literature while maintaining her recording output. Her debut album Refresh My Heart arrived in 1991 and introduced a contemporary pop style edged with rock elements, an approach she sustained and refreshed across subsequent decades. Still in her teens, she issued her initial book 40 Days with God: A Devotional Journey in 1996. Two years afterward her fifth studio album Pray earned the Grammy for Best Rock Gospel Album. Her first screen appearance came in 2000 via a supporting part in Left Behind: The Movie, and her highest Billboard 200 placement occurred when Worship God reached number 94 in 2002. The following year the newly recorded track “I Thank You,” added to the compilation Wait for Me, peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot Christian Songs chart. She inaugurated the SHE line of inspirational titles in 2004 with SHE: Safe, Healthy, Empowered - The Woman You're Made to Be and took the lead in the 2009 home-video feature Sarah's Choice. Additional releases during the 2010s encompassed the 2011 album I Will Praise You, film work such as The Frontier Boys in 2012, and three faith-based novels written with Nancy Rue. In 2020 she issued the EP Dawn, marking her first project for the Bethel Music subsidiary Heritage Music Group.

Born Rebecca Jean Smallbone in Sydney, Australia, in 1977, she counts among her musical family her younger brothers Joel and Luke Smallbone of for KING & COUNTRY. Already performing as a soloist before her teenage years, she opened Australian dates for Carman in 1990; the family relocated to Nashville the next year because of her father’s employment. By year’s end she had released her first full-length album Refresh My Heart under the name Rebecca Jean. She then joined Forefront Records, which asked her to adopt the stage name Rebecca St. James.

Her self-titled Forefront debut appeared in 1994 and earned a Dove Award nomination for New Artist of the Year. Extended Play Remixes, containing reworkings of three tracks, followed in 1995. The third album God initiated a long-term collaboration with producer Tedd Tjornhom; issued by Forefront in June 1996, it entered the Billboard 200 at number 200 and reached number six on the Top Christian Albums chart. That same month Standard Pub brought out 40 Days with God, a volume of journal entries, lyrics, and reflections directed at teens and young adults. She continued the series with You’re the Voice: 40 More Days with God, released together with the holiday album Christmas in October 1997. Her fifth studio set Pray arrived in 1998, entered the Christian Top Five, and secured her first Grammy.

St. James accepted a minor role in the Kirk Cameron vehicle Left Behind: The Movie in 2000 and also issued the album Transform, which like Christmas charted inside the Billboard Christian Top 20. In 2002 she released her seventh studio album Worship God along with the book Wait for Me: Rediscovering the Joy of Purity in Romance (Thomas Nelson); a companion Wait for Me Journal appeared the next year. The new song “I Thank You” from the 2003 best-of collection Wait for Me: The Best from Rebecca St. James became her highest-charting single at number two on Billboard’s Hot Christian Songs survey. During this period she contributed voice work to animated projects including the VeggieTales series. Further screen time arrived with the 2004 production !Hero: The Rock Opera, and she released the Billboard 200-charting live set Live Worship: Blessed Be Your Name. Beginning that year she produced a rapid sequence of books that included SHE: Safe, Healthy, Empowered - The Woman You're Made to Be and SHE Teen in 2005; Sister Freaks: Stories of Women Who Gave Up Everything for God and a study guide for Wait for Me also appeared before the year closed. Another studio album If I Had One Chance to Tell You Something came out in 2005, featuring production from Tjornhom, Shaun Shankel, and Jars of Clay’s Matt Bronleewe. A succession of EPs followed: America: The EP in 2006 and aLIVE in Florida plus Holiday Trio in 2007, the last pairing tracks from If I Had One Chance to Tell You Something with her rendition of “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.” In 2009 she starred in the drama Sarah’s Choice and edited the short-story anthology Loved: Stories of Forgiveness. She appeared with Malcolm McDowell in the 2011 fantasy film Suing the Devil, and her ninth studio album I Will Praise You arrived that April on Beach Street/Reunion Records after her departure from Forefront, returning her to the Christian Top Ten.

Acting and writing occupied much of the ensuing period, with screen roles in The Frontier Boys (2012) and Faith of Our Fathers (2015) plus a series of novels co-authored with Nancy Rue that included an adaptation of Sarah’s Choice. In 2017 she recorded a version of “Amazing Grace” with for KING & COUNTRY and toured with them and Casting Crowns on a Christmas-themed package. Newly signed to Heritage Music Group, she returned with the EP Dawn in 2020.