Lewis reached a commercial peak with her Billboard Top 5 albums: Let Love In (1990), Beauty for Ashes (1996), Gold (1998) and the Grammy-nominated Fearless (2000), which inspired young future superstars like Katy Perry and Tori Kelly.
She grew up singing in her father’s church and in 1984, at the age of 15, Lewis auditioned for a children’s musical film called Hi-Tops. It was written and produced by Ernie and Debby Rettino, creators of Psalty, the Singing Song Book. She passed the audition, and was able to go into the studio to participate on the soundtrack recording, with the rest of the cast members.