Keith and Kristyn Getty recount the widespread rejections, disappointments and sheer hard work behind their success

Keith said the award was a special privilege because "all our music is from this soil".

Their music never sounded like their contemporaries from England or America, they told the News Letter.

"It has always been very much grounded in our base here in Northern Ireland," he said.

In the weeks leading up to the ceremony he realised how many people due to attend had given them music lessons, encouragement or opportunities.

"It's actually quite emotional - so we're very honoured."

Kristyn noted that the couple first met in Lisburn and had their first dinner at the local Tidy Doffer restaurant.

"I was 18 years old, and that began a writing partnership which then grew into being married and having four daughters - so our love story began here too," she said.

Her husband added that when Kristyn came into the converted pigsty that he worked from at the time, and they sang Amazing Grace together "it changed my life".

He likens his life before and after meeting her to the divisions of AD and BC on world history.

The unique sound they went on to create together is "this unique combination of Irish and Scottish music" he explains.

But the Northern Ireland passion for faith has also imbued their music with a special quality.

"I think also there's a passion for God here in Northern Ireland that is really unique. For nine to 10 decades of the 20th century, we sent more people out as missionaries, doctors, teachers and tradesmen to the world per capita than any other country in the world.

"So I think there's a genuine passion with people here."

To illustrate, he tells the story of being stopped at a concert in 2012 by a man who told him he had translated his hymns into a local language on an Indonesian island.

When Keith asked how he had come across the hymns, the missionary replied: "When you were a little boy I delivered your coal."

Kristyn says another key factor in their music is the fact that faith in Northern Ireland is "a singing faith".

She adds: "The heritage of the hymns that are from this country, and the love to sing and the church music reflected here - that is where we both discovered our musical passions and gifts and opportunities as children - the music in the church."

Normally they return to NI for two months each year with their four daughters Eliza, Charlotte, Grace and Tahlia. But this year they are about to start a tour of Australia and East Asia, so it is only three weeks.

Next year he insists it will be 10 weeks in NI to compensate.

But in spite of the hurly burly of being Grammy-nominated recording artists and all the success and pressure that comes with it, they insist their personal faith still comes first each day.

"It means everything you know... [that is how] you begin your day..." he says.

When he was a child he wanted to either play for Liverpool or become Ian Botham.

"My parents gave me this little book about this guy they said was like Ian Botham. But it turned out he was absolutely nothing like Ian Botham - except that he played cricket for England."

The book was about CT Studd (1860 – 1931) who turned his back on international cricket to become a missionary to China.

Studd’s words made a deep impression on Keith that still ground him daily: ‘Only one life will soon be passed, only what's done for Christ will last’.

"And I think that ultimately that's how we still weigh our days."

They begin each morning by journalling their prayers "and trying to live through your day that way".

The organisations they work with, he says, hold Christian values and hopes of impacting every sector of society.

Another great passion for the pair is to see their four daughters understand their faith and grow in it.

"They have so many wonderful opportunities," she said. "They get to travel and all the rest of it. So we're always trying to impress upon them the great privilege that is, and that through it all what the Lord might use in their life because of these experiences."

Asked if they ever pinch themselves in light of their success, Keith replies: "So many of the things we've got to do I never dreamed we would do."

When he reads his own PR biography, he likens it to a social media exercise where people put their best pictures and stories online to make their friends jealous.

"And honestly what that biography really hides is the fact that every single thing we achieved happened by hard work.

"It all happened through disappointments. When we first brought the hymns to Christian publishers and record companies we were flatly rejected by everybody because they said this will never work.

"They wanted this whole contemporary pop thing and all along the way we've had to struggle and hit walls. And so in some ways, that's the reality of our life. I think I'm probably even more amazed than anything else by our success."

The couple also answered the key burning question of the day - will they be exercising their newly awarded right as Freemen to drive their sheep up the main street of Lisburn?

"My auntie has a farm in Ballywalter which was one of my favourite places in the world," Keith replies.

"I loved leaving Lisburn in the summer to be there. So I kind of think we've gotten this unique opportunity to combine the two. Perhaps I can be the first person to herd pedigree Suffolk sheep past Boots [the chemist] in Lisburn?"