Five-time Grammy nominated artist Matthew West documents the heartbreak, happiness and everything in between in new song and video “Wonderful Life” – available today across all digital streaming platforms. The tender piano ballad was inspired by an experience with a fan named Ron Janca, who was battling ALS and gave West a new perspective on life. The poignant music video, directed by Sean Hagwell, features real-life footage from Janca’s life and the Zoom meeting between him and West. Listen to “Wonderful Life” HERE.
“My goal with that Zoom call was to sing for Ron and hopefully be an encouragement to him, but Ron had other plans,” shares West. “He spent the entire call encouraging me! Little did Ron know that at that time I was battling some serious discouragement and was pretty depressed about the circumstances around me. But here was a guy able to see past his own battle with ALS to show kindness to me. I’ll never forget that. A few weeks later I received a call telling me that Ron passed away. I sat down and wrote this song. These past couple years have brought us tears, heartache, sickness and pain, but Ron taught me about the joy and the peace that you can find in this broken and beautiful, gone mad and magical, awfully wonderful life.”
Last week, West announced his sixth book, “The God Who Stays,” set for release on September 6. It includes a more in depth perspective of the impact Janca made on West in hopes to inspire others. For more information visit thegodwhostays.com.
The songwriting heavy hitter’s current single, “Me On Your Mind,” is quickly climbing the Billboard Christian Airplay Chart – currently at number 15 – and has surpassed 3 million streams across all digital streaming platforms. Adding to the excitement, he served as a co-writer on Anne Wilson’s track “My Jesus” from her debut album, out today (4/22). The track was not only the longest running number 1 on the Billboard Country Chart in 2021, it also is nominated for a Billboard Music Award – competing in the category against 4 Ye (formerly Kanye West) tracks.
Dubbed by Billboard as a “well-rounded songwriter,” he’s notched 12 number ones as a songwriter and had 12 number 1 singles as an artist, including his most recent multi-week No. 1 song “What If.” It followed back-to-back No. 1 hits with “The God Who Stays” and “Truth Be Told,” which he later recorded a duet rendition with country superstar Carly Pearce (here). The genre hitmaker is the reigning ASCAP Christian Songwriter of the Year, his fourth time with this honor in his career. In addition to his several RIAA Gold-certified and Platinum singles, fans can hear him on “The Matthew West Podcast” which just surpassed an impressive 2 million downloads and drops new episodes weekly under the “That Sounds Fun” network. He is currently captivating audiences around the nation with his Brand New Tour – for dates and ticket information visit www.matthewwest.com/tour.
