Chart Beat

Three years after initially earning a top 20 pop hit on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 as part of the duo Surfaces, singer-songwriter Forrest Frank began to compile contemporary Christian music hits. He’s become one of the genre’s fastest-rising artists, melding elements of pop, hip-hop and gospel on songs such as “No Longer Bound,” a collaboration with Hulvey, which cracked the top 20 on Billboard‘s Hot Christian Songs chart. But it’s the ebullient, summer-ready “Your Way’s Better” that becomes Frank’s first solo Hot 100 entry — the hit has reached a No. 61 high on the chart and crowns Hot Christian Songs for the first time this week (charts dated May 24). Meanwhile, his recent team-up with country artist Thomas Rhett, “Nothing Else,” resides at No. 4 on the same chart.

Frank originally released the pop-inflected “Your Way’s Better” in October 2024, but the song’s success was spurred by TikTok momentum earlier this year, thanks to a viral TikTok dance that both resonated with fans — and took Frank, then on a social media hiatus, by surprise.

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In the past year, Frank has released music at a dizzying speed, stoking fervor in the industry and his growing fan base. His July 2024 album, Child of God, was nominated for a Grammy for best contemporary Christian music album and nominated for top Christian album at the Billboard Music Awards. By that November, he returned with a deluxe version of the album; on May 9, he released its follow-up, Child of God II. The two installments currently hold Nos. 1 and 2 on Top Christian Albums, with his more recent project leading the chart.

“That’s kind of a theme for me in my career,” Frank tells Billboard, calling while on the road during the second part of his sold-out Child of God tour. “I love pushing the boundaries, and I feel like my career is busting myths.”

Below, Frank talks about “Your Way’s Better,” Child of God II and Christian music’s current Hot 100 surge.

How did “Your Way’s Better” come about?

I was having a hard day and had gone for a drive. I remember pulling into my neighborhood and that chorus came spilling out. It was just a prayer that ended up having a melody with it. I recorded a voice memo of it on my phone and didn’t do anything with it for a few months. Then, backstage at [Frank’s 2024 Child of God tour], I pulled out my laptop and produced the beat for it. Then, my producer friend PERA came out to a session and we were jamming on this song and I said, “What if you play something kind of somber?” He starts playing it, and I freestyled the melody [and] some of the words that ended up on the track.

You released “Your Way’s Better” last October, but a dance that went viral on TikTok and social media helped boost it. How did that happen?

It was my 12th- or 13th-highest streaming song at a daily rate — it was not making a big splash. There’s a couple, David Myers and Bridgette [Nicole], and they post a new dance almost every day to different songs, and it was one they did [in February]. What’s interesting is that I was taking a social media break — I had posted maybe three times in a four-month period. At first, I didn’t really engage with it, but then I saw a significant jump in my streams. I’m seeing these kids doing the dance, and it’s kind of like this vacation Bible school type thing, [learning] the dance to go with the song and do the hand motions and stuff. It is like that energy, but not in an enclosed church space. It just kind of feels like it’s across the whole world.

You just released your new album, Child of God II, on May 9, just 10 months after Child of God, and six months after its deluxe edition. Why did you want to drop another full album so soon?

They say you have to upload a song about a month before it comes out to make sure that all the distributing partners have enough time to add it to playlists and can properly program. I remember a year or two ago thinking, “Is that really the case?” So, I uploaded music closer to the deadline, like 48 hours before a release and it made it on [Spotify playlist] New Music Friday.

With Child of God, I had a song with Connor Price called “Up!” and that splashed and two weeks later, we released “Good Day,” which became the next biggest one. We kept dropping songs every two weeks because that’s the pace I was writing music. Rather than hold back music for months, why not just put everything out there and see what happens? I feel like life is short: My time and moment is finite to a degree, so if I’m excited about these songs and the fans are excited, why would I hold stuff back?

There are a lot of crossover efforts between contemporary Christian music and country happening now, such as your collaboration with Thomas Rhett on “Nothing Else.” Why do you think that’s the case?

I think including God is pretty common in country music, [but] I’ve noticed that transition in my heart and the fullness I get to experience in praising God specifically. I think the country space is starting to feel that as well. I could see in the next year or two, a lot of the A-list country artists just making straight-up Christian worship songs.

With Brandon Lake and Jelly Roll’s “Hard Fought Hallelujah” also on the Hot 100, what’s your take on the surge in Christian music’s popularity?

I think it’s just the people. Yes, it’s the artists who are expressing their genuine love for God, but also, it’s the consumers that are supporting it and championing it. With my tour, there’s this family thing going on: We didn’t expect for families to come to the show, but “Your Way’s Better” has become the music for the car ride, the music on the way to school. It was like an invisible market. I knew that there was kind of a starving family market, but here it is.

A version of this story appears in the May 17, 2025, issue of Billboard.