Representative Albums: "Shout to the Lord," "Kiss of Heaven," "For This Cause"
Representative Songs: "Shout to the Lord," "The Potter's Hand," "Jesus, Lover of My Soul"
Biography
One of the international gospel community's best contemporary worship leaders, Darlene Zschech was nominated for Song of the Year at the Dove Awards for "Shout to the Lord." The album Shout to the Lord had been released in early 1996, and a slow build over the course of the next year made it one of the most popular songs of 1997. In early 2000 she released a live album, The Power of Your Love, that also featured Ralph Carmichael and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide
Zschech was worship pastor of Hillsong Church from 1996-2007, however she still regularly leads worship and remains a pastor of Hillsong Church. She is a key leader of the Hillsong team for all church conferences. She travels regularly with the Hillsong team throughout the globe leading people in worship. Hillsong made headlines when their 2004 live CD release, For All You've Done, reached number one in the Australian national music charts. She stepped down as worship pastor in 2007, being replaced by Reuben Morgan in 2008.
"Shout to the Lord"
Zschech's best known song is "Shout to the Lord", sung by an estimated 25–30 million churchgoers every week[1]. This song is the title track for the first live album co-produced with Integrity Music featuring Zschech as a female worship leader. Shout to the Lord was nominated as "Album of the Year" for the 1997 Dove Awards and "Song of the Year" for the 1998 Dove Awards.[2] It has been recorded on over 20 different albums. In 2000, Zschech received a Dove Award nomination[3] for "Songwriter of the Year" and has received the "International Award" from GMA (Gospel Music Assoc., USA).[citation needed]
Biography
As a young adult, she sang jingles for a number of international companies including McDonald's, KFC and Diet Coke. She and husband Mark Zschech have three daughters: Amy, Chloe, and Zoe Jewel.
In 2003, Zschech released her debut solo album entitled Kiss of Heaven. This was followed by her 2005 album, Change Your World. In addition to writing songs, Zschech has written three books: Worship (1996), Extravagant Worship (2002) and The Kiss of Heaven (2003).
Zschech also founded Hope Rwanda and is an advocate for Compassion Australia. Her husband is CEO of The Grove Studios, a Sydney recording studio.
Darlene Zschech and her husband Mark were the founding executive directors of Mercy Ministries Australia - no longer in operation.
Songs
Songs written or co-written by Darlene Zschech include:
Powell, Mark Allan (2002). Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music (First printing ed.). Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers. p. 1067. ISBN 1-56563-679-1.