A strange thing happened over this past year. Well not really strange, but something that hasn’t occurred for a very long time. A Christian artist topped the mainstream charts, in terms of album, and song, for a sustained period of time. Not that those events haven’t occurred before, but I reckon the only person that has had an impact on the charts of this magnitude would be Amy Grant way back in the 80’s and 90’s, and specifically for her song “Baby Baby” and her album Heart In Motion in 1991 (which ended that year at number 15 in the Billboard 200 charts, and at 24 in 1992). Sure there have been other artists and songs that have crossed over (dc Talk for “Jesus Freak”, Jars Of Clay for “Flood”, MercyMe for “I Can Only Imagine” and various others), not to mention Christian artists who have specifically entered into the mainstream industry to be an influence in that market (think of Skillet, Switchfoot, Needtobreathe, Relient K, and more recently Tori Kelly and for KING & COUNTRY)… yet this time around, a Christian artist has not really cared about the market, and has just written an album and a song from their own heart. The song and the album has blown up around the world, and surprisingly on mainstream- so much so that the track is present on the annual Now That’s What I Call Music (the mainstream version of WOW Hits), and that’s well deserving. By now you probably know what the song is, and the artist…but if you still are unaware, let me tell you all. It’s Lauren Daigle, and the song is called “You Say”, from her latest album Look Up Child.

Continue reading FLASHBACK FRIDAYS: WEEK 32 (How Can It Be by Lauren Daigle)- When Christian artists crossover, what should our response be? →