Twila Paris (born December 28, 1958) is a Contemporary Christian Music singer-songwriter, author, and pianist. Since 1980, Paris has released 22 albums, amassed 33 number one Christian Radio singles, and was named the Gospel Music Association Female Vocalist of the Year three years in a row. Many of her earlier songs such as “He Is Exalted”, “We Will Glorify”, “Lamb of God”, and “We Bow Down”, are found in church hymnals or otherwise sung in church settings. She was inducted into the Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame in May 2015.
As a child she released her first album, Little Twila Paris, in 1965. The album included songs drawn from among those she sang with her family in their evangelistic outreaches.
Paris released her first full-length album, Knowin’ You’re Around, in 1981, and along the way she has written books, recorded children’s music, and created worship songs.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Paris released mainly contemporary Christian pop songs. But in recent years, she has focused on recording new versions of some of her worship standards and writing new praise and worship music. Her 2005 album He Is Exalted: Live Worship collects a number of favorite songs commonly used in praise and worship of Paris’s and presents them in a more typical style of live worship music. After her song “He Is Exalted” was used in churches in Brazil, Paris re-recorded it in the Portuguese translation they were using. This version appears on her 1992 album Sanctuary. Sanctuary won the GMA Praise & Worship Album of the Year, and in 1995, her song “God Is In Control” won a GMA Song of the Year award. She has won five GMA Dove Awards and three American Songwriter Awards.
Although associated for much of her career with Star Song Communications, EMI switched her to Sparrow Records in 1996, before her contract ended after 2003. In 2005, she switched to the praise and worship label Integrity Music for He Is Exalted: Live Worship.
Paris released Small Sacrifice on December 26, 2007, which was available only through her Web site and at Lifeway Christian Stores. This album married the two parts of her career by including both inspirational pop/adult contemporary songs and original praise and worship compositions. Her first radio single from Small Sacrifice was “Live to Praise”. Small Sacrifice was released for wider distribution by Koch Records on February 24, 2009.
In 2012, Paris released a patriotic-themed project that includes two new cuts (“God of Our Fathers” and “America the Beautiful”) and ten cuts that Paris hand-picked from other projects. The purpose of the project is to inspire patriots with themes of God’s protection and love, even in difficult times.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Paris toured extensively. As a new artist, she opened for the Imperials. After receiving her first #1 hit, she began headlining her own concert tours, with such notable opening artists as Wayne Watson, Clay Crosse, Phil Keaggy, Avalon, Aaron-Jeoffrey, Fernando Ortega, and Out of the Grey. She was featured in the “Young Messiah” tour and co-hosted with Steven Curtis Chapman both the My Utmost For His Highest and Child of the Promise tours. In the 2000s, she continues to tour but not as extensively. For the past few years, Paris has joined Steve Green, Wayne Watson, Larnelle Harris and Michael Card for the Christian Classics Tour.
Selected Discography
Kingdom Seekers
Starsong Records 1985
The Warrior Is A Child
Milk & Honey Records 1984
Keepin´My Eyes On You
Milk & Honey Records 1982
Knowin´ You´re Around
Milk & Honey Records 1980