MercyMe releases 'Then Christ Came'; set to headline Red Rocks this fall

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Tue, Jun 7th 2022 09:45 pm

Grammy Award-nominated band MercyMe has released a new single, “Then Christ Came.” The award-winning group launched the new song across all streaming platforms on Friday, alongside an official lyric video – watch here. Radio friends were the first to hear the track when the band debuted it live at the annual Christian Music Broadcasters’ Momentum Conference in Orlando last week. “Then Christ Came” is set to impact radio July 8.

Two years in the making, “Then Christ Came” was originally slated for MercyMe’s 10th studio album, “inhale (exhale).” However, frontman Bart Millard and his co-writer, David Leonard, didn’t finish the track in time. Yet, knowing it was already a special song, the band included a brief, incomplete demo of the chorus on their latest project. Recently, Millard revisited the lyrics and finished the song with friends Jason Ingram and Phil Wickham.

“We are just so excited with how it turned out,” Millard shared of the hard-fought offering. “Sometimes we over-complicate things trying to come up with new, creative ways to sing about Jesus. But the message of this song is simple in that it’s about who I was before, and then Jesus showed up, and now everything has changed. We love how it turned out and hope you like it, too!”

MercyMe is set to share new music, as well as plenty of fan favorites and chart-topping hits, when they return to Red Rocks for one night only, Oct. 17. The engagement will mark the band’s second time to headline the iconic venue.

Listen to “Then Christ Came” across all platforms here.

It continues to be a landmark time for the multi-Platinum-selling, multiple American Music Award, Billboard Music Award and Dove award-winning MercyMe. They were recently named Billboard’s Top Christian Artist of the 2010 decade, and in 2020 received their eighth American Music Award nomination.

A major motion picture based on the life of Millard, who wrote the mega-hit song “I Can Only Imagine” after the loss of his father, opened at a remarkable No. 3 at the box office on March 16, 2018 (Lionsgate, Roadside Attractions). In conjunction with the movie release, Millard penned a memoir and the band released a collection of hits titled “I Can Only Imagine – The Very Best Of MercyMe.”

In 2018, MercyMe was named Top Christian Artist at the Billboard Music Awards, was the top winner at the fan-fueled K-LOVE Fan Awards (including a win for Artist of the Year), and was the GMA Dove Award-winner for Artist Of The Year.

Since their debut in 2001, the band has sold more than 9 million units in CD, single and DVD sales, garnered more than 48 No. 1 multi-format radio singles, and had four consecutive mainstream radio hits. MercyMe made history in 2014 as “I Can Only Imagine” surpassed 2 million digital downloads, making it the first song in Christian music to go Platinum and double-Platinum in the digital domain. The song has now gone four-times-Platinum.

In 2009, Billboard named MercyMe’s “Word Of God Speak” the No. 1 Song of The Decade, and the group the No. 1 Artist of the Decade, in both the Christian Songs and Christian AC Songs categories. It recognized MercyMe as one of the industry’s most notable talents.

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