According to the characteristics of deepwater top tensioned risers, a simplified model is presented to predict the multi-modal response of vortex-induced vibration (VIV) in non-uniform flow based on energy equilibrium theory and the experimental data from VIV self-excited and forced oscillations of rigid cylinders. The response amplitude of each mode is determined by a balance between the energy fed into the riser over the lock-in regions and the energy dissipated by the fluid damping over the remainders. Compared with the previous prediction models, this method can take fully account of the intrinsic nature of VIV for low mass ratio structures on lock-in regions, added mass and nonlinear fluid damping effect, etc. Moreover, it is the first time to propose the accurate calculating procedure for VIV amplitude correction factor by solving energy equilibrium equation and a closed form solution is presented for the case of a riser of uniform mass and cross-section oscillating in a uniform flow. The predicted values show a reasonable agreement with VIV experiments of riser models in stepped and sheared currents.