Imagining Amy Grant’s 3 Surprising Dream Collaborations

You might know Amy Grant’s legacy as the “Queen of Christian Pop” or long-time duet partner and wife to country music icon Vince Gill, but Grant’s dream collaborations have nothing to do with country or Christian music. The “Tennessee Christmas” singer revealed her list of dream collabs in a 2013 interview with People magazine, and it was a surprising list, to say the least.

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Still, we can’t help but imagine what those Grant collaborations might look (and sound) like.

Sting

Christian pop star Amy Grant listed Sting, prolific solo artist and former frontman and bassist of the Police, as one of her dream collaborations. While Sting isn’t necessarily the first artist to come to mind when thinking of country or contemporary Christian music, it appears the two artists share similar faith backgrounds. Grant’s faith, of course, is at the forefront of her public persona. Sting also grew up in the church, although he was raised Catholic.

“I was an altar boy, and I learned the Latin Mass. But I loved plainsong,” Sting said in an interview with the National Catholic Register. “I loved Gregorian chant, the Sung Mass. I still think I carry some of those cadences in my composition when I compose. So, I’m grateful for that.”

Katy Perry

While we typically associate Katy Perry with secular pop hits like “Firework” and her controversial debut, “I Kissed a Girl,” in the early 2000s, Perry released a contemporary Christian album under the name Katy Hudson. “I wanted it to be like Amy Grant, but it didn’t pan out that way,” Perry said in a 2013 interview with NPR. “My label actually went bankrupt. I went back home to Santa Barbara with my Taylor guitar I got for my 16th birthday and started working at an antique shop.”

In 2008, the singer released her “debut” album, One of the Boys, under Katy Perry, her stage name. (Hudson is her birth name.) Considering Grant listed Perry as one of her all-time dream collaborations, Perry’s dreams of becoming the next Amy Grant might not be too far out of reach these days.

Bruce Springsteen

Out of all the artists Amy Grant has on her list of dream collaborations, Bruce Springsteen is perhaps the least surprising. After all, Grant is no stranger to the ‘70s rock ‘n’ roller scene. Her husband, Vince Gill, performs with the Eagles, who are arguably the most sonically similar to Springsteen (compared to Perry and Sting, anyway). A Grant-Springsteen collaboration sounds about as all-American as they come: Christian, pop, rock, or otherwise.

Grant has found inspiration in Springsteen’s career in more ways than one. In a 2008 interview with the Modesto Bee, Grant recalled giving her child—who was, by that point, an adult—advice straight from the Boss. “[I told them], I heard Bruce Springsteen once say, ‘Great enlightenment is always preceded by a f*** up.’ I don’t talk that way, but it was a quote. It’s life. The things in heaven and things on earth are so articulated by Bruce and God.”

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