Day 5 - Amy Grant - El Shaddai

5. Amy Grant - El Shaddai
From the album Age to Age (Independent, 2001)

Before Amy Grant became a household name with chart topping hits like Find a Way, Every Heartbeat and Baby Baby, she released Age to Age, an album that almost singlehandedly changed the contemporary Christian music industry. The album sold well over a million copies. It became the first Christian music album by a solo artist to be certified gold in 1983, and the first ever platinum Christian music album in 1985. El Shaddai was one of several hits that pushed sales of the album to 5-6,000 copies per week and kept it at #1 on the Christian album charts for an astonishing 85 weeks.

The song was written by Michael Card and originally appears on his 1981 debut album Legacy, but it is Grant's version that Contemporary Christian Magazine named the 5th best Christian song of all time. Unusual for a contemporary song, half the lyrics are sung in Hebrew.

El Shaddai, El Shaddai,
(God Almighty, God Almighty)
El-Elyon na Adonai,
(God Most High)
Age to age You're still the same,
By the power of the name.
El Shaddai, El Shaddai,
Erkahmka na Adonai,
(I love you, O Lord)
We will praise and lift You high,
El Shaddai.

El Shaddai peaked at #1 on the Christian Songs Chart and was later awarded one of the "Songs of the Century" by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) in 2001. In 1983, the song won a Dove Award for Song of the Year and Card was given the award for Songwriter of the Year.

Here is the album version of the song.