
Michael Whitaker Smith (born October 7, 1957) is an American
contemporary Christian musician, who has charted primarily in the contemporary Christian and occasionally in the mainstream charts.His biggest success in mainstream music was in 1991 when "Place in this World" hit No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. Smith is a three-time
Grammy Award winner, and has earned 40
Dove Awards. Over the course of his career, he has sold more than 13 million albums and recorded 29 No. 1 Hit songs, fourteen gold albums, and five platinum albums. Smith is an
American Music Award recipient; he was also named one of
People magazine's "Most Beautiful People". He has also published 12 books including This is Your Time, which he worked with Christian author
Gary Thomas to write.

Michael W. Smith became one of the most enduringly popular artists in the contemporary Christian music market while also finding brief success as a mainstream artist. The songwriter was born in Kenova, West Virginia, the son of an oil refinery worker and a caterer. He became a devout Christian at age ten and spent his teenage years around a support group of fellow believers who frequently gathered to create music. That support group split up after high school, and
Smith turned to alcohol, drugs, and wild times. Meanwhile, he scraped through a couple semesters of college and began honing his songwriting skills, which led to a songwriting company's interest in his music in 1978. He moved to Nashville, where he played with a series of local bands, including
Rose. He was still heavily into drugs and continued using until October 1979, when he suffered an emotional mental breakdown that culminated in his recommitment to Christ. The next day, he auditioned for a new CCM group,
Higher Ground, as a keyboardist.
Smithlanded the gig and began to clean up his act while touring with the band.
Smith signed to Meadowgreen Music as a staff writer in 1981, and he spent the next few years penning gospel hits for such artists as
Sandi Patti,
Kathy Troccoli,
Bill Gaither, and
Amy Grant. He began touring as a keyboardist with
Grant in 1982; one year later,