• 1998-2024

  Reuben MorganWorship leader, guitar1998-2003

  Marty SampsonWorship leader, guitar1998-2011

  Joel HoustonWorship leader, guitars, keyboards, percussion, bass2002-2024

  Taya SmithVocals2013-2023

  Michael Guy ChislettGuitar1998-2024

  Dylan ThomasGuitar, keyboards2008-2024

  Luke MunnsDrums1998-2007
• Hillsong United began not as a band but as a youth ministry. Formed in 1998 out of the youth program of Hillsong Church in Sydney (then called Powerhouse Youth), the group was originally known as United Live, reflecting their early focus on recording songs during the church's annual Encounterfest conferences. This live format meant the lineup was fluid, with a rotating cast of young worship leaders rather than a fixed roster.
• The group's de facto leader, Joel Houston, is the son of Hillsong Church founders Brian and Bobbie Houston, making him something close to worship music royalty. He first joined the band as a bassist and songwriter before stepping up as a vocalist in 2002 when founding leader Reuben Morgan departed for a solo career. That transition also prompted the name change from United Live to Hillsong United.
• Before becoming the band's frontman, Houston played in a side project called Able alongside Marty Sampson, Michael Guy Chislett and Luke Munns. The group won Australia's Channel V Leg Up competition in 2001, giving Houston early exposure. Houston had, in fact, already written the title track of Hillsong United's debut album, Everyday, before he ever took the microphone as a lead vocalist.
• One of the most visible symbols of Hillsong United - the bold, all-caps UNITED logo - was designed not by a branding agency but by the band's own drummer. Luke Munns, a co-founding member who joined the Hillsong youth band at age 13, created the logo in 2002 for the album To the Ends of the Earth, and it has remained the band's identity ever since.
• Their biggest crossover moment came with "Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)" in 2013. The track became one of the most successful Christian songs of all time, spending 61 non-consecutive weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot Christian charts and a record 191 weeks overall. Billboard later ranked it the #1 Christian song of the 2010s decade, and it achieved quadruple Platinum certification in the United States.
• The voice on "Oceans" belongs to Taya Smith, who grew up on the far north coast of New South Wales and was a church youth group leader before she ever became a recording artist. She reportedly recorded her lead vocal in one take.
• Hillsong United continued to expand their reach with releases like Empires (2015), which debuted at #5 on the US album chart, a rare achievement for a worship act. The album's black-and-white cover was unveiled in an unusual way. It was sent 95,000 feet into the stratosphere before being revealed via social media, which is not the standard approach, but does suggest a certain confidence in your Wi-Fi signal.
• Hillsong United went on indefinite hiatus in the early 2020s as the wider Hillsong Church was engulfed in a series of high-profile scandals. In March 2022, church founder Brian Houston - the father of band leader Joel Houston - resigned as global senior pastor after the church's board received allegations that he had acted inappropriately toward two women. Houston had also faced criminal charges in Australia for allegedly concealing his late father's child sexual abuse crimes, though that charge was ultimately dismissed in August 2023. The controversies prompted the Discovery+ documentary series Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed, and led to the departure of 11 of Hillsong's 16 US campuses from the global church.

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