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Dolly Parton is delving into CCM/gospel anew, teaming with “Brighter Days” hitmaker Blessing Offor for his song “Somebody’s Child,” a soulful piano ballad that nods to finding solace and belonging in faith.
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Two-time Grammy nominee Offor, who just completed the first leg of shows opening for Lauren Daigle’s national tour, wrote the piano ballad with Joy Williams and Josh Ronen. The accompanying music video, starring Offor and Parton, begins with Offor playing and singing at a piano. He’s soon joined by Parton and a choir, heightening the emotion, while the video is interspersed with footage of various real-world situations of both joy and struggle, highlighting the need for compassion and empathy.
“We’re all ‘somebody’s child,’” Blessing said of the song in a statement. “It’s such a simple concept, but I hope it’s the beginning of us all realizing that there’s always a point of empathy, there’s always common ground if we want to find it. And there’s no better embodiment of finding common ground, finding relatability, than Dolly Parton. I’m so honored and humbled to have her on this project.”
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In January 2023, the Nigerian-born, Connecticut-raised Offor released his debut album My Tribe. He was nominated for the GMA Dove Awards’ new artist of the year in 2022 and that same year, earned a three-week Christian Airplay No. 1 hit with his TobyMac collab “The Goodness.” Offor has been featured on albums by Lee Brice and Chris Tomlin, while his song “Brighter Days” reached No. 2 on the Christian Airplay chart.
Ten-time Grammy winner Parton added in a statement, “I know it’s too easy to say it was a blessing singing with Blessing,” Dolly says, “but it was. I love the song ‘Somebody’s Child’ and I am very proud to be a part of it.”
Parton, of course, has teamed with a few other CCM/gospel artists in recent years, partnering with for King & Country on “God Only Knows,” as well as partnering with Zach Williams for “There Was Jesus” and “Lookin’ For You.”
See the video for “Somebody’s Child” below:
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Earlier this month, reigning CMA Awards entertainer of the year Lainey Wilson stood alongside contemporary Christian music star Chris Tomlin at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena as part of Tomlin’s eighth annual Good Friday Nashville concert.
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Standing between them onstage was “My Jesus” hitmaker Anne Wilson. The trio of artists playing to the Nashville audience served as a literal representation of Wilson’s new album, Rebel, with its aim of fully intertwining the two genres via a country sound enmeshed with faith-filled lyrics. Both Tomlin and Lainey appear on Rebel, which comes out Friday (April 19) via Capitol Christian Music Group and Universal Music Group Nashville.
In 2021, Kentucky native Wilson broke through with “My Jesus,” a song she wrote following the death of her older brother Jacob. The song spent six weeks atop Billboard’s Christian Airplay chart, making Wilson the first female soloist to top the Christian Airplay chart with a debut single since the chart’s launch in 2003. Subsequent singles included the top 5 Christian Airplay hits “Sunday Sermons” and the top 25 hit “Hey Girl.”
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After she released her debut Capitol Christian Music Group album, My Jesus, which sonically dipped into the grooves between CCM and country, Wilson recalled getting messages from both country and Christian music fans.
“Some would say, ‘We don’t listen to Christian music, but we love your music. It sounds country.’ And then others would say, ‘We love country music, but we don’t play it in the car because we don’t want our kids listening to it, but we let them listen to you — the in between,’” Wilson tells Billboard, while seated at UMG Nashville’s office. “That was encouraging for me to hear, and showed me that’s where we were heading.”
As she began writing for the album in late 2022, Wilson says “the songs that were coming from my heart were leaning more country.” To that end, she’s set about expanding upon her CCM radio success, releasing music aimed at both country and CCM audiences, with her current top 5 Christian Airplay hit “Strong,” as well as country-aimed “Rain in the Rearview.” The songs filling out Rebel flit between themes well-known to country listeners, such as family (“My Father’s Daughter”), Sunday morning church, rural living and the struggles of life on the road (“Milestones”), but also songs that delve deeper into spiritual themes of prayer (“Sinner’s Prayer,” “Praying Woman”), redemption (“3:16”), and worship (“The Cross,” featuring Tomlin).
UMG Nashville Chair/CEO Cindy Mabe also saw the potential in a CCM-country connection and reached out to Wilson’s team in 2023.
“She said, ‘We want to give her an opportunity to take a song to country radio and to expand her reach,’” Wilson recalls. “It was out of the blue, but it made sense. I basically have two record labels, which is amazing. Double the people, double the ideas. It’s been great having so many different people helping with this album.”
Wilson, Zach Kale, CCM singer-songwriter Matthew West and The Cadillac Three’s Jaren Johnston wrote ‘Rain in the Rearview’ in August 2023 and released it the following month.
“Writing it, producing it and releasing it in like five weeks was very fast, but it’s been cool to see the reaction and how my music has been able to go to both country and Christian platforms and be appreciated in both,” Wilson says.
Certainly, songs of faith have been mainstays in country music from its inception, from the gospel classic “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” made famous in country circles by The Carter Family in 1935, to Hank Williams’ “I Saw the Light” and Carrie Underwood’s Grammy-winning “Something in the Water.” But the past five years has seen a particular surge, with more than a dozen country-CCM collaborations released from artists including Dolly Parton, Zach Williams, Florida Georgia Line, Thomas Rhett and Colton Dixon. Tomlin teamed with FGL for a CCM album featuring country artists, while Steven Curtis Chapman released a bluegrass-tinged project and Underwood issued a hymns album.
With Rebel, Wilson fully fuses the two genres. She co-wrote every song on the 16-track project, reuniting with her core team of co-writers in West and Jeff Pardo, who crafted “My Jesus” with Wilson, and expanding her writing circle, bringing in top-tier country writers including Nicolle Galyon, Emily Weisband, Trannie Anderson and Casey Beathard.
“It was really life-giving as an artist; this album felt very free-spirited, like I can write about my faith, but also about different things, too,” say Wilson, who is part of both the Opry’s NextStage Class of 2024 and the CMT Next Women of Country Class of 2024.
She teams with “Wildflowers and Wild Horses” singer Lainey Wilson (no relation) on “Praying Woman.”
“I loved working with her,” Anne says. “I met Lainey on Instagram in 2020. Then we met [in person] last year, and we wrote the song the same day … We were talking about our moms, and we both remember our moms praying a lot when we were kids, getting on their knees and praying for things, and we got to write a song to honor our moms and talk about what it means to be a woman who prays and faith.”
She says Lainey is “like a big sister,” explaining, “The thing I love about Lainey’s story is she worked for so many years, lived in a camper and all these things and never changed who she was. She trusted that she was going to keep being herself and something was going to happen one day, and it did. She’s told me multiple times, ‘Don’t change for anyone or anything.’”
“Next Thing You Know” hitmaker Jordan Davis joins on “Country Gold,” a tender, breezy ode to the riches found in the simplicity of family, friends and rural living. They first collaborated during the ACM Honors last year, performing Davis’s hit “Buy Dirt.”
“He’s such a good guy,” Wilson says. “When I wrote ‘Country Gold,’ and it felt like it could be a collaboration, the first person I thought of was him. He said, ‘Yes,’ and I think his voice adds the perfect touch. It’s one of the more straight-forward country songs, just with valuing small-town life.”
“Milestones,” written with Galyon and Hungate, delves into the trade-offs that come with life as a musician on the road. “I remember Nicole asking me, ‘How are you?’ And I was like, ‘Good,’ but she was like, ‘No, how are you really?’ And I just started crying, and telling her all these things that I’ve been going through, and the pain of missing milestones. You hold it in one hand, the incredible opportunities I’m getting, and then in the other hand is all the milestones you have to miss; it’s just this exchange. But I think anybody can relate to that in a sense. My team’s really good about giving me grace for that, too. I’m a people-pleaser; I don’t like to disappoint. But I think it’s about figuring out what are the most important moments in my life and making sure those stay on the calendar, and then everything else works around it.”
Meanwhile, “Red Flag” serves as an older sister of sorts to the song “Hey Girl” from Wilson’s My Jesus album.
“All the little girls love ‘Hey Girl,’ and we thought, ‘What’s the grownup version of that song?’ After you’ve told them about their identity in Christ and loving themselves, the next thing is a boy that comes into the picture. I’ve never written a song about a boy — because, thankfully, I’ve never had a bad breakup story — but my mom had always told me about red flags: ‘Look for this and don’t look for this.’ This song ended up being like a continuation of ‘Hey Girl,’ to encourage them and tell them what to look for.”
While sonically and thematically, the album stitches together the threads tying country and Christian music, the title track stems from her struggles to meld the two genres.
Wilson had been taking that title into writing rooms for a few years, but says, “No one wanted to write the song. They were like, ‘How do we write a song called “Rebel” when you are this five-feet, little sweet Christian girl who’s not a rebel at all?’… At one point, I had a song go to [Christian] radio and they said it was too country for them to play it, though the message was very faith-based. I remember being frustrated, as any artist would, but it fired me up to want to write this album. A lot of the reason we called it ‘Rebel’ is I decided I’m just going to be who I am. I’m not going to change who I am to please Christian radio and I’m not going to change who I am to please country radio.”
To that end, her upcoming summer dates will include a mix of Christian and country festival performance slots — with Wilson playing the same set of songs, whether playing to a more country-leaning or CCM-leaning crowd. One thing Wilson is looking forward to is appearing at some country festivals where Lainey Wilson is also playing: “So hopefully, we’ll try to perform [“Praying Woman”] together,” she says.
Wilson is also set to lead her second headlining tour in the fall.
Contemporary Christian music singer-songwriter and two-time Grammy winner Lauren Daigle brought her Kaleidoscope Tour to Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Saturday (April 6), as the Lafayette, Louisiana-born Daigle ushered in a cavalcade of sounds, a tight-knit horn section, superb backing vocalists, a full band, and a brightly-hued, joyous production for the roughly two-hour show.
Daigle, who has notched six pinnacle reachers on Billboard‘s Hot Christian Songs chart, has long approached her music with a free-flowing, genreless mindset, one that positions melodies and lyrics as leaning into a vast spectrum of sounds, each a capable vessel of hope, healing and flourishing. As she has amassed success both in Contemporary Christian Music and pop music (most notably, her 2018 album Look Up Child, which debuted at No. 3 on the all-genre Billboard 200, while her song “You Say” reached the top 30 on the all-genre Hot 100), Daigle has made the natural step up to headlining arenas — and with it has constructed a show filled with colors, sights and sounds meant to capture and hold the audience’s attention from the first, uptempo moments of “These Are the Days.”
Helming uptempo anthems such as “Look Up Child,” as well as soaring ballads such as “Valuable” was Daigle’s soaring vocal, which has often drawn comparisons to both Adele and Joss Stone, as well as her joyous, easygoing performance style as she and her crew of musicians danced and shimmied around the mainstage and catwalk stretching into the middle of Bridgestone Arena. The full band resided aloft an elevated platform, placing them visually in the center of the massive video wall that shone an array of colors and images throughout the evening, while Daigle and her crew of vocalists/musicians/dancers took up residence on the mainstage.
“This song is my favorite,” was a refrain of regular occurrence from Daigle throughout the set, as she punctuated the evening with stories behind some of her songs. Her fourth, eponymous studio album — which released last year via Atlantic Records/Centricity Music — saw Daigle further embrace mainstream pop, welcoming artists including Gary Clark Jr., and Jon Batiste, as well as songwriting prowess from songwriters including Shane McAnally and Natalie Hemby.
As a companion to her song “Kaleidoscope Jesus,” she spoke of the soul-connecting power of touring and live concerts, comparing each concert to looking through a kaleidoscope and knowing that each turn of the instrument brings a new collage of shapes and colors unique to that moment.
She noted that the song nods to a memory of playing with kaleidoscopes at her aunt’s house as a child.
“When you look inside of a kaleidoscope, and put it up to the light, there are different shapes and colors, some have rough edges and some have smooth edges,” Daigle told the crowd at one point. “Then you put them up to the light and they make this beautiful image… you bring all of your different stories to this show; some of you are struggling, some are having the time of your lives, but we bring those stories to God and put them up to the light and ask, ‘God what are you going to do through all of this?’ and it becomes a beautiful moment.”
Daigle’s hope-giving work extends beyond song and stage; during the concert, attendees were encouraged to sponsor a child through an organization Daigle works closely with, ChildFund, which aims to provide children around the world with food, clean water, education, healthcare and more. Daigle, who also sponsors a child through the program, noted that more than 700 children were sponsored by attendees at Bridgestone that evening.
Opening the show was Nigerian-born singer-songwriter Blessing Offor, known for his 2023 hit “Brighter Days” and his feature on TobyMac’s song “The Goodness.“ “This show means the world to me because this is my hometown,” Offor told the crowd.
Seated at a keyboard at the front of the main stage, he offered a Sterling display of his soulful, octave-leaping tenor vocal. He sang songs aimed at elevating his fellow musicians, particularly those struggling in the early days of their careers in “Don’t We All.” He sang “Believe,” and Tin Roof,” which Offor wrote with songwriter Natalie Hemby. CCM mainstay Chris Tomlin later recorded the song with Offor and included it on his country-leaning album Chris Tomlin & Friends. He followed with “My Tribe,” the title track to his 2023 album, and concluded with his breakthrough song “Brighter Days,” which drew the audience to appropriately light up three arena with a sea of cell phone lights.
Below, we highlight five top moments from Daigle’s set:
“Rescue”
Singer-songwriter Patrick Mayberry notches his first No. 1 on Billboard’s Christian Airplay chart as “Lead on Good Shepherd” rises to the top of the survey (dated April 6). The single, released on Centricity Music, increased by 7% to 5.9 million airplay audience impressions in the March 22-28 tracking week, according to Luminate. Mayberry co-authored the […]
Jonathan McReynolds collects his sixth total and consecutive No. 1 on Billboard’s Gospel Airplay chart (dated April 6) with “Able,” featuring Marvin Winans, who adds his third leader. During the March 22-28 tracking week, the song drew airplay on 34 stations that report to Gospel Airplay, tying for the most among all titles on the […]
In 1957, less than a decade after writer Stuart K. Hine wrote the 1949 hymn “How Great Thou Art,” vocalist George Beverly Shea introduced the song to U.S. audiences during one of preacher Billy Graham’s crusades at New York’s Madison Square Garden. According to author Don Cusic’s book The Sound of Light, Shea performed the song nearly 100 times during the 16-week crusade, which averaged 19,000 in attendance each night.
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Since then, “How Great Thou Art” has become one of the most well-known hymns, sung weekly in congregations around the world and performed by notable artists such as Elvis Presley, who made the song the title track to his second gospel project in 1967 and won two Grammys for his recordings of the song, including best inspirational performance and best sacred performance. In 2011, Carrie Underwood earned a hit with her version of the song, and later included it on her 2021 gospel album, My Savior. The song was included on a list of “365 Songs of the Century” released in 2001 by the Recording Industry of America and the National Endowment for the Arts.
To honor the 75-year anniversary of “How Great Thou Art,” sixteen CCM and country artists came together to update the song with a new verse and creating “How Great Thou Art (Until That Day),” which releases today. Chris Tomlin (“Holy Forever,” “How Great Is Our God”), Matt Redman (“10,000 Reasons”), Lady A member Hillary Scott (“Thy Will”), Cody Carnes, Kari Jobe, solo artist and Maverick City Music member Naomi Raine, TAYA, Ryan Ellis, Jon Reddick, Blessing Offor, Brian Johnson, Jenn Johnson, Matt Maher, Pat Barrett, Benjamin William Hastings, and Mitch Wong joined together to record the new version.
The Stuart Hine Trust, which owns and administers Hine’s catalog, commissioned Redman, as well as writer-artist Wong (a writer on CeCe Winans’ Grammy-winning hit “Believe For It”) to craft a new verse to the song, one that would lend hope and resonance with current events. Maher and Steve Marcia produced the new version, with string arrangement by Tommee Profitt.
“Normally, you can’t adapt this hymn,” Redman tells Billboard. “There is a pattern with old hymns, if they are in the public domain, of adapting them, adding a chorus, reworking them. But with ‘How Great Thou Art,’ the Stuart Hine Trust is still the publisher and normally they would deny anyone who tried to mess with it. So I was quite surprised when they approached and said, ‘Would you like to write a new section?’”
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Hine wrote the song in 1949, though its origins stretch back to an 1800s Swedish hymn. Hine was a missionary in the 1930s, living and traveling in the Carpathian Mountains in Eastern Europe, which now includes Ukraine. Proceeds from the new version of the song will support humanitarian efforts to aid those impacted in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
“We tried to tie into the old verse structure, but with a melodic lift and words saying, ‘Hey, we can’t avoid or ignore that we live in a broken, warring world, and we have to face that, but we’re also going to sing with hope,” Redman says, adding, “I feels like a bit of a weird word, ‘War,’ to put in a hymn, but that’s our reality, whether it’s on a personal level or on a national, actual war level, that’s the world we live in. I don’t want to sing a song that feels escapist or doesn’t engage with reality.”
The artists came together to record vocals at both Gold Pacific Studios in Los Angeles, as well as Nashville’s RCA Studio B — the same Music City studio where Presley recorded his version of “How Great Thou Art” in 1966. “Matt Maher got to play the piano from the Elvis version, so it was quite a special full-circle moment,” Redman notess.
“I felt like we landed on a fresh approach that felt very true to the old hymn,” Redman says. Tomlin begins the song with a solo vocal, followed by Scott. From there, vocalist after vocalist lends their vocal, sometimes solo and other times wrapping in harmonies, building into full-on vocal choruses. “The most wonderful thing for me was all of these people are fantastic vocalists. We’d have Naomi Raine sing, and Kari Jobe and Blessing Offor, then Hillary Scott comes in — I don’t know quite how she carries that completely pure voice, but with that tiny edge to it. The vocals all work so well together.”
Looking ahead in celebrating the song’s 75th anniversary, Redman says that there could be additional versions of “How Great Thou Art” (including the new verse) on the way: “The Stuart Hine Trust has commissioned, I believe, an orchestral version, a choir version, welcoming different versions of the new arrangement as a way of resourcing out to the wider church.”
Grammy winner Chris Tomlin will embark on his first major global headlining trek in over a decade when his Holy Forever World Tour launches in April, Billboard can exclusively reveal.
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Since releasing his debut album in 1993, Tomlin’s name has become synonymous with modern worship music, as the Texas native has issued songs that have evolved into music standards sung by church congregations around the world. He has earned 11 Christian Airplay chart-toppers, including the 15-week No. 1 “Whom Shall I Fear (God of Angel Armies)” and the 18-week No. 1 “Made to Worship.” His 2013 album Burning Lights debuted atop the Billboard 200 chart, becoming the fourth Christian album to hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
In addition to Stateside concerts in such cities as Boston, Seattle and Las Vegas, the Holy Forever World Tour will make stops in England, the Netherlands, Germany and Hungary. The trek follows Tomlin’s sold-out U.S. Evening of Worship fall 2023 tour, which wrapped in November.
“I’ve never played in Hungary or Dusseldorf [Germany] — those [cities] near the end of that European run will be brand new for me,” Tomlin tells Billboard of gearing up for the overseas shows. “There’s something about when I’ve played overseas, there’s something about the hunger to those audiences. In America, we have so much — especially even when it comes to Christian music, there’s so many concerts going on and churches on every street. But in a lot of places, that just doesn’t happen. I remember a few places we played around the world, we played a two-hour set and they’re like, ‘Are you kidding me? That’s all you’re going to play?’ So, we played for another two hours. It’s exciting to be part of that. Music is global. The church is global.”
Sibling trio CAIN, known for Christian Airplay chart-toppers “Yes, He Can” and “Rise Up (Lazarus),” as well as the top 10 hit “I’m So Blessed,” will open the U.S. shows on the tour.
“They are the hottest thing going, as far as our genre of music and all the new bands that are coming out,” Tomlin says of the trio’s Taylor, Madison and Logan Cain. “They are resonating with the next generation and their music is so good. They are siblings, so their harmonies are insane. They have such a heart for worship and for connecting with people.”
It also doesn’t hurt that Tomlin’s daughters are big fans of the group. “Every morning when I’m taking my girls to school, we have ‘I’m So Blessed’ cranked up in the car. So to have them on the tour will bring a really different dynamic than I’ve had on my tours.”
He says attendees can expect some onstage collaborations between Tomlin and CAIN. “I think it has to happen,” he says, recalling a recent jam session with the group. “We were playing and writing a bit; I had my guitar with me and the three of them were singing. It was so spontaneous and real and pure. I have a great expectation for those shows.”
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The Holy Forever Tour’s namesake is Tomlin’s 2023 six-week No. 1 Christian Airplay hit “Holy Forever,” which Tomlin wrote with Brian Johnson, Jenn Johnson, Phil Wickham and Jason Ingram.
“I think it’s one of those songs that probably will be one of the anchor songs of my career,” Tomlin says, noting that the writing session drew together separate song and melody ideas from Tomlin, Ingram and Johnson, melding them into “Holy Forever.”
“When it started crystalizing, it was like, ‘Wow, these different parts of songs we all had are coming together,’” Tomlin says, noting the key line from the song, “A thousand generations falling down in worship.” “Generation after generation, we’re just the next one to take the baton and every generation has done it differently,” he says.
Given the song’s global impact, Tomlin has a singular hope for every concert on the upcoming tour.
“I always pray when people are walking through those doors that they sense the grace of God, that on these nights people who are carrying heavy burdens are lifted up again in their soul and they’re reminded of God’s grace, to remind us of something greater than ourselves,” he says.
Pre-sale for Tomlin’s Holy Forever Tour begins Jan. 19, with general on-sale starting Jan. 22 at christomlin.com.
Holy Forever World Tour dates:
Thursday, April 18: Newark, NJ – Prudential CenterFriday, April 19: Hershey, PA – GIANT CenterSaturday, April 20: Boston, MA – Agganis ArenaWednesday, April 24: Tulsa, OK – Mabee CenterThursday, April 25: St Louis, MO – Chaifetz ArenaSaturday, April 27: Kansas City, MO – Cable Dahmer ArenaWednesday, May 1: Spokane, WA – Spokane ArenaThursday, May 2: Everett, WA – Angel of the Winds ArenaFriday, May 3: Portland, OR – Moda CenterThursday, May 9: Fresno, CA – Save Mart CenterFriday, May 10: Anaheim, CA – Honda CenterSaturday, May 11: Henderson, NV – Dollar Loan CenterSunday, May 26: West Sussex, UK – Winston House – Big Church Day OutMonday, May 27: Belfast, United Kingdom (UK) – SSE Arena BelfastTuesday, May 28: Rotterdam, Netherlands (NL) – Ahoy ArenaThursday, May 30: Düsseldorf, Germany (DE) – Mitsubishi Electric Halle – D.LIVESaturday, June 1: Szeged, Hungary -Hungary Szent Gellert Forom (Forum) Stadion – This Is The Day (separate from tour)
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A Nigerian influencer has introduced a new term, “Christian BBL,” to explain a surgical procedure that she had, leaving many online confused.
According to Complex, the Internet was ablaze this week as Sophia Idahosa, known to her followers as Sophiology, posted a video to her YouTube channel to explain getting a surgical procedure that she referred to as a “Christian BBL.” In the 39-minute video, Idahosa explained the procedure to viewers beginning with her visit to Houston cosmetic surgeon Dr. Jung Money to get liposuction and a fat transfer to her hips. She then connected the procedure to her commitment to Christianity and addressed those making comments questioning her thinking behind this for being “judgmental” and “projecting their beliefs.”
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“I have never presented myself to be [a] holy, perfect example,” Idahosa said at the 6:30-minute mark of the video. “I’ve always vouched for the girls that love God and are not accepted by others.” The 29-year-old had been hit with comments calling out her behavior. Later in the video, she stated that “having surgery is one thing, but aftercare is everything.” In a separate video, she explained further saying: “I’m not personally that person. I’m here for anything that makes you look better, feel better, have more confidence and just enjoy your life.”
Her use of the “Christian BBL” phrase had many online perplexed and expressing as much in posts on X, formerly known as Twitter. “I’ve been screaming at the idea of a Christian BBL for the last 13 hours,” wrote one user.
Others who commented jabbed her, with one YouTube commenter saying, “Leave religion out of it. You have the free will to be vain if that is what you want.” Another X user posted a meme featuring Blac Chyna (who has recently undergone surgery to reduce her butt and breasts) superimposed in front of a large cross, making fun of the term.
A Brazilian Butt Lift, or BBL, has become a common surgical procedure for women who want to be curvier, particularly around their hips. According to WebMD, there were 21,823 BBL surgeries done in the U.S. in 2020. That number dropped from 28,076 in 2019, but research suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to the decline. It’s also regarded as a dangerous procedure, as a report from the Aesthetic Surgery Journal noted that there were one to two fatalities for every 6,000 of those BBL surgeries, the highest such rate among cosmetic surgeries.
After a right-wing preacher targeted her online, Flamy Grant watched as their follower numbers skyrocketed, their album Bible Belt Baby soared to the top of the iTunes Christian charts, and their song “Good Day” earned their first entry on a Billboard chart.
But now, the drag artist, whose very name appears to be a wink at the name of longtime genre mainstay Amy Grant, is setting their sights on the Grammys. In a statement sent to Billboard, Grant says that they had submitted their album for consideration in the annual awards ceremony’s best contemporary Christian music album category, only to find out the project had been removed from the category and placed in the best pop vocal album category.
“I know next-to-nothing about the Grammy nomination process, so when we saw you couldn’t vote for it in best contemporary Christian [music] album, I just assumed that was the end of the road. It was a total shock when an Academy member sent me a message several days later to say she was excited to vote for me in best pop vocal album,” Blake says in the statement. “Pop music is included in the contemporary Christian category. The only logical conclusion I can come to is that someone in the Academy decided my album qualifies as pop, but not as Christian.”
Here is the category description of best contemporary Christian music album, drawn from the 66th annual Grammy Awards rulebook: “For albums — vocal only. Screening criteria: This category recognizes excellence in a solo duo, group, or collaborative performance of contemporary Christian music, including pop, rap/hip-hop, Latin and rock…”
In an official statement shared with Billboard, the Recording Academy confirmed that Grant’s album had been moved into the best pop vocal album category based on “explicit language/content” used in one of the album’s songs. “The Academy is an open and inclusive organization that embraces artists from all backgrounds and genres,” the statement reads.
The song in question is Grant’s “Esther, Ruth and Rahab,” in which Grant celebrates the women of the Bible whose stories are often left unsung. “So I guess the lesson there was God would only hear a prayer/ If it came from a person with a c–k,” she sings in one passage of the song.
When it comes to the gospel and contemporary Christian screening committees, the Academy reiterated that group is made up of “artists, genre experts, songwriters, and producers within the Gospel & CCM genres.” The rules and guidelines for the 2023 ceremony states that “if a genre Screening Committee determines that a recording should be moved to another genre, the recording is forwarded and screened by that genre committee.”
While there is no overt rule against explicit lyrics being included in Christian categories, the Academy reiterated that the re-categorization of works with explicit content is “a standard practice for the Gospel & CCM genre committee, given that the Gospel & CCM Field consists of lyrics-based categories that reflect a Christian worldview.”
A total of 83 albums are vying for nominations for best contemporary Christian music album. Best pop vocal album is a more competitive category, with 128 albums entered this year.
In her statement, Grant asserts that she was not made aware of the screening committee’s practice regarding explicit lyrics. “My faith journey has been long and difficult, but I’m still here, still taking up space in Christianity, still advocating for the inclusion of queer kids like me who grow up in these churches that ignore and oppress them,” she said. “I’m very used to gatekeepers in the worlds of church and Christian music — that’s a big part of why I’ve dedicated myself to this work. But I never expected to encounter religious gatekeeping at the Grammys.”
The focus at the 2023 Dove Awards was on celebrating gospel music in all its forms, but two artists, Lauren Daigle and Tauren Wells used the occasion to address the war between Israel and Hamas, which has been dominating news coverage for the past two weeks.
The Dove Awards were taped on Tuesday Oct. 17, at Allen Arena on the Lipscomb University campus in Nashville. But the thoughts of many there, and around the world, were on events 6,446 miles away. The current crisis began on Oct. 7 when Hamas militants launched a series of surprise attacks on Israeli territory from Gaza, killing defense personnel and civilians and taking hostages.
“In light of what has happened in Israel this week, our eyes need to be opened to what He might be calling us to,” said Daigle, 32, who won her 12th Dove Award that night for best short-form music video of the year (concept) for “Thank God I Do.”
“We have the hope of eternity and the good news of the Gospel,” she added. “We aren’t bringing in messages that tear and divide, we’re bringing in messages that remind people of their worth, that remind children they are valuable and belong in society and remind people that they have something that only God can fulfill. We get to tell them that He is the Great I Am. That He is above the times. That He is the source of hope compared to nothing else this world has to offer. There is nothing as great. He is the light of the world. He is the light of men. He is the bread of life.”
Wells, 37, a five-time Dove Award winner in years past, was more extensive in his remarks.
“The difficulties that people in Israel and Palestine are experiencing, as believers in this room, we understand the weight and the gravity that comes with this conflict. A conflict that started in the house of Abraham and has existed for 4,000 years. We know that ultimately Jesus is going to get His glory. He is going to redeem His people.
“I was so encouraged by this – when Jesus returns, He is going to descend from which he ascended at the Mount of Olives, and He is going to split the mountain in two. Because the God we serve is powerful. At the same time, He is present. He is present with those who are hurting. He is present with those who are broken. The scripture does a beautiful job of painting the portrait of Jesus as the bright and morning star. He is high and above and away from it all. But it continues to describe Him as the lily of the valley. He’s in the dark places, the quiet places, the places of pain and loss.
“So, I just want to express today on behalf of the artists in this faith community here, that we remember Israel tonight. We stand with the people of God and as scripture instructs us, we pray for peace in Jerusalem. Now here’s the thing – we can’t just pray for peace and not understand and identify the Prince of Peace. This conflict will not end until Jesus is the Lord of Israel and Jesus is the Lord of Palestine and Jesus is the Lord of every nation and every tribe and every tongue. There is a day coming at which every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
“The world could be at war but the church is gonna be in worship. Because we don’t praise God depending upon our circumstances. We praise God depending upon His reputation. And scripture says He is faithful and He is good to every generation. And that means there are generations the world will forget that God will remember. Tonight we celebrate that name of Jesus as we remember the people reeling in pain tonight.”
In addition to hosting, Wells teamed with Davies to perform “Take It All Back” on the show. The two acts recorded the highly commercial, pop-oriented song with We the Kingdom.
Daigle’s 12 Dove Awards include two awards for artist of the year, in 2015 and 2019. Wells’ five include new artist of the year in 2018 – an award Daigle had won in 2015.
Brandon Lake was the top winner at the 54th annual GMA Dove Awards. Tasha Cobbs Leonard, Toby Mac, Blessing Offor and Jeff Pardo each won two awards.
The show was produced by the Gospel Music Association. Jackie Patillo and Justin Fratt served as showrunners and executive producers, alongside Curtis Stoneberger and Paul Wright as producers. Russell E. Hall returned as director, Michael Nolan as scriptwriter, Scott Moore and Go Live Productions as production manager.
The show aired Friday (Oct. 20) on TBN and The TBN App and was also simulcast on SiriusXM The Message. An encore performance will air on TBN and The TBN App on Friday, Oct. 27 at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. ET. To watch the show on demand, go to The TBN App.