ChristianMusicDaily

After the huge success of the Dove Award winning Song of the Year, “Redeemer,” singer-songwriter Nicole C. Mullen has become a star on the rise, but she probably doesn’t consider herself to be that. She’s a mother, a wife, and an artist, but star? That’s not really her thing. She loves people. She wants to hear what they have to say. She loves to dance and teach kids how to dance. And she loves Jesus, and wants to share that love with others.

Nicole C. Mullen found her faith in Jesus at an early age. “I fell to my knees and I made up the best prayer an eight-year-old could make up. God took me seriously,” said  Mullen, about her youthful commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of her life. “He changed me, and He’s been using me ever since. I remember getting off of my knees and typing on a little typewriter saying, ‘As of this night I will never be the same. Jesus Christ has come into my heart. He’s made me clean and new.’”

One of Mullen’s contemporary Christian CDs, “Talk About It,” is a testament to how God can use the ordinary to do extraordinary things. The singer-songwriter knows that God has been a great God to her since she “called on Jesus” at an early age.

"And I have not been perfect ever since, but Jesus Christ has,” she said. “I have been faithless at times, but He has been faithful. I have done my own thing, but He’s been steady as a rock. He’s never left me or forsaken me. Jesus Christ took an ordinary girl and did an extraordinary thing through her. If He can do it with me, He can definitely do it with you.”

After growing up, Mullen went away to bible school at Christ for the Nations for a couple of years and then traveled with their singing group. Later, she lived in Dallas for a while, then went to Nashville, and started singing background for her husband, producer David Mullen.

“He’s a songwriter/producer now,” said Mullen, about her husband. “He wrote the ‘Larryboy’ theme song for Veggietales. He made me sing it. We do a lot of stuff together in the studios. He worked on the Veggietales movie about Jonah and the Whale. My husband is one of the brainchild’s behind the music. He produced the album I had on Word and other ones of mine.”

Mullen was a back-up singer for years before stepping into the spotlight of center stage.

“Amy Grant had me out (on tour) for a couple of years. I went on tour with the Newsboys—I was a Newsgirl for a couple years. From there I went on tour with Michael W. Smith and different people,” she said. About Smith, she added that he’s a “wonderful guy, great Christian, he loves the Lord, and he’s a man of faith and a man of honor.”

Mullen’s always been a singer-songwriter, but only recently did she start to receive notice from the Christian music world. Her song, “On My Knees,” was a big hit for singer Jaci Velasquez. It won many awards, as did “Redeemer,” which helped her sell hundreds of thousands of copies of her self-titled debut CD. Mullen was the first female in over a decade to win the Dove Award for Songwriter of the Year because of  “Redeemer.”

So where does she come up with such amazing songs?

"Sometimes they come to me while I’m driving,” said Mullen. “I was raised in the city, but now I live out in the country on 40 acres and we have horses and dogs and cats and bugs and bugs and bugs. I live about an hour outside of Nashville, and on the way home a lot of ideas will come, depending on my train of thought for that day or a certain passage of scripture may strike me and spark a song.”

Nicole C. Mullen is a songwriter with a mission.

“I love writing about reality from a Christian’s point-of-view. I believe that we as believers are called to make an impact on our culture. We are compelled to do that,” she said. “We as believers are called to give light to the world and we can’t give light by hiding. We’ve got to let those around us know we are believers in Jesus Christ, so I do my best to do that in my songs.”

Nicole C. Mullen with ChristianMusicDaily.com's Mark Weber

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