Day 27 - Nichole Nordeman - Holy

27. Nichole Nordeman - Holy
From the album Woven & Spun (Sparrow Records, 2002)

Nichole Nordeman got her start in the Christmas music industry when she entered, and won, a talent competition produced by the Gospel Music Association. After two well received albums she released Woven & Spun which many consider to be one of the best Christian albums of all time.

What sets this album apart from the majority of CCM fare is its sheer simplicity. There are no big pop-music hooks, no overproduced wall of sound strings or horns and no attempt is made to follow the tried and true Nashville formula. It's just a collection of 12 incredibly well written songs carried by Nichole's stunning voice and sung with genuine transparency, authenticity and vulnerability.

Here's what Nichole had to say about the song Holy.

"Every artist has a song that they measure time by. For me Holy was that song. Many were suddenly referring to my music as either ‘pre-Holy’ or ‘post-Holy.’ Certainly up until that song, most of my writing had been pretty introspective. … When it was time to write for the third project, I discovered this wonderful thing as a songwriter that I hadn’t experienced yet, and that was to write something that was more universal, that would speak to everyone’s experience. It came from a personal place, but I knew even in writing it that a lot of people would connect with it on a much broader scale and be able to sing that as an anthem along with me. So that was a really great moment to step back and see that this songwriting thing just doesn’t have to be about me. it can have some arms out there.” (source: CBN.com)

In 2003, Nordeman won four Dove Awards including Female Vocalist of the Year, Song of the Year, Songwriter of the Year, and Pop/Contemporary Recorded Song of the Year all for the song Holy.

Here is the original album version of the song.