Hillsong Worship emerged as a leading and highly productive praise and worship ensemble from Australia's Hillsong Church, the Pentecostal ministry situated in northwest Sydney. Until adopting its current name in 2014, the group operated as Hillsong Live and issued more than two dozen albums while introducing several prominent CCM figures, among them Darlene Zschech, Marty Sampson, Brooke Fraser, Reuben Morgan, and Joel Houston. Its first project under the Hillsong Worship banner arrived with 2014's No Other Name, after which the ensemble sustained regular Billboard Christian Albums visibility through such acclaimed releases as The Peace Project (2017), Awake (2019), and Take Heart (Again) (2020).
New Zealand-born Brian and Bobbie Houston established the congregation as Hills Christian Life Centre in August 1983. The initial gathering of 45 members expanded to 900 within four years. In 1986 the Houstons inaugurated the annual Hillsong Conference to train and support contemporary Christian musicians. Retail shelves received the first live recording issued under the Hillsong Live name, later rebranded Hillsong Worship, when The Power of Your Love appeared in 1992; vocalists and songwriters Geoff Bullock and Darlene Zschech were featured, both of whom would remain central to subsequent Hillsong projects. By 1999 the Houstons had changed the church's official name to Hillsong as well. Despite controversies arising from the organization's firm political positions, the 2004 live album For All You've Done reached the top of Australia's mainstream pop charts, and more than 30,000 people attended the July 2005 Hillsong Conference. Weekly attendance surpassed 19,000 by early 2006.
Although the Hillsong Worship catalog has become an annual fixture drawn from conference performances, the separate Hillsong United series originated as the church's youth-ministry ensemble. First known as United Live and fronted by Reuben Morgan and Marty Sampson, the group released its debut Everyday in 1999. Each subsequent album was captured live at the October youth gathering Encounterfest, allowing input from numerous church members and associates such as Brooke Fraser, then issued on CD and DVD the next year. After Morgan departed for a solo career in 2002, Joel Houston assumed leadership and the name shifted to Hillsong United. Popularity grew internationally; United We Stand became Canada's top-selling Christian album of 2006, followed by comparable commercial performance from All of the Above in 2007 and both a_CROSS//the_EARTH: Tear Down the Walls and its companion Faith + Hope + Love in 2009.
During the 2010s the church opened additional locations worldwide while its primary musical outlets increasingly shared the Hillsong name on packaging. Hillsong Chapel and Hillsong Young & Free emerged as further ongoing series. Strong U.S. reception accompanied God Is Able (2010), Zion (2013), No Other Name (2014), Open Heaven/River Wild (2015), and Let There Be Light (2016), each of which led Billboard's Christian charts and frequently placed high on the pop listings. The six-track EP What a Beautiful Name arrived in 2017, its title track performed by Brooke Ligertwood. A year later the concert recording There Is More: Live in Sydney, Australia 2018 included the song "Who You Say I Am," which reached the Billboard 200's top 30.
Hillsong Worship returned in 2019 with the live album Awake, introduced by the single "King of Kings" again sung by Ligertwood and comprising twelve new worship songs. That same year the ensemble issued its first Spanish-language project, Hay Más, presenting Spanish adaptations performed by Ligertwood, Jad Gillies, and David Ware alongside a choir drawn from Hillsong Buenos Aires worship leaders. Take Heart (Again), a 2020 collaborative album uniting Hillsong Worship, Hillsong United, and Hillsong Young & Free, followed, and the stand-alone single "Fresh Wind" appeared in 2021.
