Crystal Lewis

Crystal Lewis dominated the CCM charts for an entire decade, reaching a commercial peak in the genre with her Billboard Top 5 albums “Let Love In” (1990) and “Beauty for Ashes,” (1996), in addition to “Gold” (1998) and the Grammy® nominated “Fearless” (2000), which collectively sold hundreds of thousands of units and inspired young future superstars like Katy Perry and Tori Kelly. In 1999, Kirk Franklin – who later produced the background vocals on “Fearless” - invited Crystal to sing on his Grammy nominated original “Lean on Me” with R. Kelly, Mary J. Blige and Bono – and she joined the others in a performance of the song at the Grammy Awards. Two of the Dove Awards she won in 1998-99 were for her Spanish language albums “Oro” and “La Bellessa de la Cruz.” She planted the seeds of her current jazz-oriented recordings with the release of her Christmas album “Holiday!” (2000) performed with the Peter Erskine Trio.