Melanie Penn is a Nashville based songwriter at the crossroads of faith and culture. After studying classical voice, she moved to New York City and pursued musical theatre where she enjoyed several years as a mainstay in the theatre scene, most notably playing Sandy on the Broadway national tour of Grease! starring Frankie Avalon. Penn then started a collaboration with Nashville producer Ben Shive. Their first album together was called Wake Up Love (2010), and was met with unexpected critical acclaim. Five more albums followed in continued collaboration with Shive: Hope Tonight (2015); Immanuel (2017); Immanuel: The Folk Sessions (2019) and More Alive Vol. I and Vol. 2 (2020/2022). The Immanuel project, Melanie’s songwriting journey through the Christmas story, was called a songwriting tour de force by Christian and mainstream press. It reached No. 1 on Amazon’s Christian, Worship and Holiday Download charts. Melanie is also a worship leader and served at Redeemer Presbyterian Church under the leadership of the late author and theologian Tim Keller. She has been called “a New York songwriter in the age of skepticism.” Melanie will release The Rising, an album about the resurrection, in 2025.