{"id":390786,"date":"2025-11-19T21:39:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T21:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/390786\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T21:39:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T21:39:14","slug":"brandon-lake-interview-cmas-grammys-crossover-hits-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/390786\/","title":{"rendered":"Brandon Lake interview: CMAs, Grammys, crossover hits and more"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Fifteen miles south of Sin City, Brandon Lake<\/a> is seated backstage at a packed arena in Henderson, Nevada. In a matter of hours, he will perform an energetic, \u201cfamily-friendly\u201d show, as he tells The Associated Press, for thousands of people. He\u2019s on the road with his latest album, 2025\u2019s \u201cKing of Hearts,\u201d a Christian music release that spans genre \u2014 pop, rock, country, hip-hop \u2014 a mixture not always associated with worship music.<\/p>\n

Its eclecticism is one of the many reasons why his music is connecting. The album peaked at No. 7 on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart, an undeniable feat for a contemporary Christian music (CCM) release, and earned Lake his first Top 40 hit: \u201cHard Fought Hallelujah\u201d with country singer Jelly Roll<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the marriage of awesome production with an awesome message. A message of hope,\u201d says Lake. \u201cThere is strength that can be found, and hope that can be found, in the midst of the hell that you are walking through. And then you pair that with like an awesome sound and it\u2019s like, who\u2019s not going to love that?\u201d<\/p>\n

Lake\u2019s award-winning moment<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Lake was nominated for three Grammys<\/a> at the 2026 award show in February;<\/a> he already has five trophies to his name and a total 15 career-nods. \u201cBeing recognized, that is to me, that\u2019s recognizing the millions of people\u2019s lives that have been impacted by this music and the message,\u201d he says of the nominations. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely a pinch-me moment.\u201d <\/p>\n

This year, he was nominated for his first Country Music Association Award<\/a> as well: for musical event of the year, for \u201cHard Fought Hallelujah.\u201d It\u2019s not a Christian category \u2014 he found himself competing against secular artists. (Lake did not win: The category was announced ahead of the CMAs on Wednesday.) \u201cI think it is a crossover moment and I pray that it is. I\u2019m trying to cross over, into any and every space that God will allow that is authentic to who I am,\u201d Lake says. \u201cI grew up on country music; I grew up on Christian music. … And if you listen to my music, it is very diverse, you know? Quote-unquote Christian music, worship music … it doesn\u2019t really make sense having a genre, because it\u2019s what we do with our lives. It\u2019s not a sound.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a contemporary approach that reflects modern listening habits, too. Holly Zabka, president of Provident, a Sony subsidiary dedicated to Christian music, uses her daughter as an example to explain the trend. \u201cShe doesn\u2019t define her musical taste by genre. I think that\u2019s what we\u2019re seeing. She\u2019ll go from a Luke Combs song<\/a> to a Brandon Lake song to Harry Styles,<\/a> that\u2019s how she listens. She\u2019s a fan of everything. And I think that\u2019s where Christian music is finding its footing as well. It can exist alongside every other genre.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Christian crossover movement<\/p>\n

Lake is at the forefront of a new musical movement in the U.S., where Christian artists are growing in popularity. According to a midyear report from Luminate,<\/a> the industry data and analytics company, streams of new music \u2014 recordings released in the last 18 months \u2014 are slightly down from the same time last year, except in the case of Christian\/gospel music. Jaime Marconette, Luminate\u2019s vice president of music insights and industry relations, attributed the genre\u2019s growth to \u201cyounger, streaming-forward fanbase,\u201d which is 60% female and 30% millennial. Artists like Lake, Forrest Frank and Elevation Worship<\/a> are leading the charge.<\/p>\n

\u201cI pray it\u2019s just the beginning, and I pray that it takes over,\u201d Lake says. \u201cAnd not the genre of Christian music, but songs \u2014 whatever genre they are \u2014 that carry the message of the gospel.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also got a few theories on the music\u2019s growing popularity. \u201cThe reason why people are turning their ear towards those kinds of songs right now is because that\u2019s what they were made for,\u201d he explained. \u201cMusic doesn\u2019t just have to be entertainment. They can have a spiritual experience. They can be educated on who they were made to be. They can receive hope and life and faith. … I love all kinds of music, but if you have a song that carries that kind of message, it\u2019s just super charged, you know? It does something deeper.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is especially crucial, Lake says, in a divided world.<\/a> \u201cI think people are waking up \u2014 especially the state of our world and all the craziness that\u2019s going on \u2014 everyone\u2019s like, \u2018We need to choose love.\u2019 Well, the greatest demonstration of love is the gospel.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Charlie Kirk connection<\/p>\n

In September, Lake performed at a memorial service for the late conservative personality Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed<\/a> at a Utah college event. His death was one of an escalating number of attacks on political figures, from the assassination of Democratic state lawmaker<\/a> Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, in Minnesota to last summer\u2019s shooting of Donald Trump,<\/a> that have roiled the nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know him at all. And so, the invitation really came out of nowhere,\u201d Lake said of his decision to perform at the ceremony. Lake said his team told him that the Kirk family \u201clistened to my music and, you know, it was a soundtrack of their faith,\u201d and when Lake\u2019s wife urged him to perform, there was no hesitancy. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe quickly said we are not going there to make a political statement. And there will be so much politics represented in the room,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe are going to minister to a widow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the world was turning to violence, we watched a lot of millions of people turn to worship and chose to sing praise to God,\u201d he said. \u201cEven though there was politics represented, the gospel was shared so many times. And it was like God was weaving in and out. … It was just such an incredible honor.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

This story corrects the song title \u201cHard Fought Hallelujah.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Fifteen miles south of Sin City, Brandon Lake is seated backstage at a packed…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":390787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[2122,119587,181485,174,19719,8571,3988,69,171,20151,24495,185980,185978,66615,70489,185979,18598,975,43929,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-390786","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-arts-and-entertainment","9":"tag-assassination-of-charlie-kirk","10":"tag-brandon-lake","11":"tag-celebrity-interviews","12":"tag-charlie-kirk","13":"tag-christianity","14":"tag-country-music","15":"tag-donald-trump","16":"tag-entertainment","17":"tag-grammy-awards","18":"tag-harry-styles","19":"tag-holly-zabka","20":"tag-jaime-marconette","21":"tag-jelly-roll","22":"tag-luke-combs","23":"tag-mark-hortman","24":"tag-melissa-hortman","25":"tag-music","26":"tag-sony-group-corp","27":"tag-united-states","28":"tag-unitedstates","29":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115578533813259453","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}