Dubbed the "Michael Jackson of Christian Music", she successfully crossed over to the pop charts with her 1991 release 'Heart in Motion' which was fueled by the #1 hit 'Baby, Baby'

She was serving Main Pop Lady energy with 3 other Top 10 singles from the album and another top 20 hit (all which made the Year-end charts), with the album going 5x Platinum

 The album was nominated for 'Album of the Year' in 1992 and she received VMA & AMA nominations as well & she even booked an arena tour that year. 

Her Christmas album in 1992 peaked at #2 (the highest for a Christmas album at the time) and went 3x Platinum, which continued her mainstream success. 

However, her follow up album to 'Heart in Motion'  in 1994 sold half of it's predecessor and featured no crossover hits and after a couple more failed attempts, she returned to her Christian roots and never looked back.

What happened? 

 

She did though. “Hero” was a really big hit and that was years after “Baby, Baby”.

She has had a very long career, even if it wasn’t all “mainstream pop”. She had 9 successful Christian albums before Heart in Motion and Grammys and successful tours. Catering to an established audience isn’t a fail, it’s smart. She’s still making music decades after her first his record from the 70s. From there 70s until now. Just because her mainstream phase that the GP knew about was relatively short, the woman has established a very long career that few of our faves have done, and has nothing to be ashamed of. 
 

that Heart in Motion album really is a great pop album too. 

she is the MJ of Christian music PERIOD

 

She has 15 RIAA-certified albums, that sounds like longevity to me

3 minutes ago, rihannabiggestfan said:

She has 15 RIAA-certified albums, that sounds like longevity to me

Hence why she's the MJ of Christian Music. I meant her pop career. Though at the end, it's probably better that she went back to Christian music as she's still big in that genre per her stats.

I've just noticed "Baby Baby" was a number-one hit in US. I was sure it has peaked at No. 5.

 

Baby Baby is such a nostalgic bop  

You forget that Amy didn’t attempt her pop crossover until she was 31. So she was already in ageism territory and still managed to smash. She still managed to get a Top 20 hit on her next album, which was still 2x Platinum. And like you said, her Christmas album did well and was one of the most successful Christmas albums of its time. 

 

Christian artists almost never crossover at all, so the fact that she did and did so well says a lot about her + she still had a great long Christian career before and after her pop crossover, so Amy Grant definitely lasted

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Music tastes changed drastically in early 1992 towards grunge/hip hop/eurodance/adult contemporary ballads

 

1991 was the perfect time for her to release Heart In Motion because if she had released in 1992 I don't think it would've smashed despite being an excellent album

 

By 1994 there wasn't really an obvuous lane in pop music for her