NASHVILLE, Tennessee—Jordan St. Cyr is from a small town of around 1,200 people located outside Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. As a child, he remembers his dad showing him a few chords on a guitar, and then he took it from there. He attended a youth group at his church, and they asked if anyone was interested in singing and playing guitar. He was soon enlisted to lead worship.
St. Cyr recalled, “My competitive nature took over and I’d spend three, four hours a night just learning these songs and singing. It’s really what helped me learn my craft.”
In his teen years, St. Cyr had an adventurous, missional spirit and got fired up to share the Gospel. This led to him graduating high school early and working for a local electrician until he had saved enough money to join Youth With A Mission (YWAM). This was the fall/winter of 2002, just after 9/11.
After a training period, St. Cyr was recruited to serve at Ground Zero in New York City instead of going to a foreign land. He worked nights serving food to police officers, firefighters, and clean-up crew.
“To be a part of something that was so much greater than yourself was a beautiful, defining, moment for me, a younger person, and it’s something that I will carry with me for all my days,” he said.
Six months after leaving YWAM, St. Cyr released his first EP, just him and his guitar. That is when he started pursuing Christian music full-time, singing, songwriting, and touring. In 2007, he married his wife, Heather, and a few years later, St. Cyr released the album Anchors, which led to touring Canada as he ministered to people.
A Canadian record label came to see him play. They didn’t end up signing him, but they did recommend that he check out NSAI in Nashville.
“I took that information and ran with it. As soon as I got home from that meeting, I went online, I checked them out and I saw the conferences they have, the songwriting camps that they have for people just like me. It was 2014 and literally was the beginning of finally being found. Everyone in the room was just like me. It was a beautiful new understanding of what collaboration meant,” St. Cyr shared.
That got him hooked on songwriting in Nashville, and he would visit four or five times a year. He wanted to move to Nashville, but they enjoyed Canada’s “free” healthcare. Then, five years ago, his daughter was born with a rare brain disease. When Emery was three, they felt the nudge to move to Nashville again, but they didn’t know how to navigate America’s healthcare system.
Because his daughter had been diagnosed with Sturge-Weber Syndrome, she started having seizures. The best neurosurgeons to treat this disease worked at Vanderbilt’s Children’s Hospital in Nashville. It was a divine appointment, and the place where St. Cyr wanted to make music was also the best place for his daughter to be.
St. Cyr dropped his first full-length self-titled album in the spring of 2022 with Seattle-based label BEC Recordings. The project features the chart-climbing radio hits “Fires” and “Weary Traveler.” The lyrics of both songs inspire us to seek hope during our darkest moments actively. And it was “Fires” that quickly put St. Cyr on the map, hitting the airwaves on major networks and stations for nearly 18 months straight, reaching millions weekly and going to the top 5. “Weary Traveler” followed, which also became his first No. 1 hit single, taking the top spot on all radio charts.
In 2022, St. Cyr became a two-time GMA Dove Award nominee and swept the 2022 GMA Canada Covenant Awards with six wins. He was recognized with an additional five honors during 2023’s GMA Canada Covenant Awards, including Artist of the Year, making him the most-awarded artist for a second consecutive year.
In June 2023, “a guy from the middle of nowhere in Canada” made his Opry debut. Though he had not dreamt of his Opry Debut like most people I interview, once he stepped into the circle, St. Cyr knew he was in a special place.
He said, “Oh, this stage is different. This is really something special and unique to itself. It was a beautiful moment. Thank you, God, for this moment. I know that this is a gift.’” And then St. Cyr brought the church to the Opry.
Earlier this year, St. Cyr released the five-track EP My Foundation, which includes the mega-hit “Rescue” along with title track “My Foundation” (written with pal Matthew West) and autobiographical “A Way For Us” which chronicles his move to Tennessee.
As St. Cyr is gearing up for his summer/fall tour, he has released the full record My Foundation which includes the original five songs from the EP along with six new tunes including “To Save My Life” and “God Did A Good Thing.”
But possibly the most special song on the album is “Help,” a song St. Cyr attributes to Friends late star, Matthew Perry. He had just read his biography. Twice Perry prayed. His first prayer was “God, please make me famous.” And that did happen, but the second prayer mentioned in the book was when Perry was at rock bottom and he simply prayed, “Help.”
St. Cyr explained, “That struck a chord in me because when we find ourselves in deep need, it’s so hard for us to share our need, to ask people for help.”
“Help” is a song for anyone who thinks they can’t go on, when no one else but God can help us.
Songwriters like St. Cyr, West, Ben Glover, and others are so special that their songwriting sessions are Christ-centered. They pray that the music they create will speak to others in ways they can’t even imagine.
St. Cyr said, “We get in the room and pray, ‘God, what do you have for us today? What would You like us to share?’”
The tricky thing for Christian artists is that they still need to make a living without getting in the way of doing God’s will.
“You have to truly walk in the call of the Lord that he is your provider. When we get caught as Christian artists in trying to make things happen for ourselves or trying to appear bigger than we are, we’re really operating out of the authority that God has given us. And that’s where it can get dangerous. We got to stay held within his hands and operate in the lane that he is calling us to drive in,” St. Cyr said.
The singer/songwriter emphasized, “All I want people to know is that a) they are not in this alone, and b) there is a light at the end of the tunnel.”
If this is the kind of music you like to hear, then St. Cyr’s My Foundation album has the message you need.
You can follow St. Cyr on his website, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and all streaming platforms.
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Bethany Bowman is a freelance entertainment writer. You can follow her blog, Instagram, and X.
