Anne Wilson hopes to inspire Christians to be a 'rebel' like Jesus with new album
Grammy-nominated Christian singer Anne Wilson has released a new album blending contemporary Christian music with mainstream country stylings and a theme stressing that Christians are viewed as "rebels" in society, just like Jesus.
Rebel was released Friday and is billed as a "bold, genre-defying new album." The 22-year-old hopes the title track, "Rebel," will inspire others to be bold in their faith and stay true to who they are.
"I had had this moment of my career just feeling I was too country for Christian — like, my songs were just not being played on Christian radio because they were too country," Wilson said in a recent interview with CrosswalkHeadlines.
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"But yet the message was Christian, and it honestly fired me up to go, 'You know what? I'm not going to please Christian music. And I'm not going to try to change who I am to please country music. I'm going to just be authentically who I am.' And so it fired me up to go write a song about what it means to be a rebel."
"Having faith in the world that we live in today makes me feel a little bit like a rebel," she added. "It's like when we have faith, we're the odd ones out. But yet the world can go talk about all these horrible subjects and it's welcomed and invited. But when we talk about our faith, it's like somehow we're like the ones in the wrong. And it just felt like an inspiration to go, 'You know, I'm going to write a record that is so steeped in faith.'"
Wilson said that being a Jesus follower today "makes you a rebel" because "Jesus was a rebel."
"And so if you're trying to be like Him, you're going to end up being a rebel," she was quoted as saying. "And so all those different things came into one big idea, and we wrote the song."
The lyrics to the song read in part:
"Who talks to a man that they can't see? / Who finds power in an old book they read? / In a world full of doubt, who still believes? / Who talks to a man that they can't see?"
The album includes collaborations with some of today's top contemporary Christian music stars, including Chris Tomlin, Matthew West, Lainey Wilson and Jordan Davis.
Wilson "felt really called to just preach the Gospel, point blank, share the truth."
"There are a couple of songs on the record that will be on country radio that maybe don't specifically talk about God," she told CrosswalkHeadlines. "But it's like a nod at it. My goal is to get people to hear the song and them want to know more."
Wilson got her start on the Christian charts in May 2022 when her popular studio album "My Jesus" debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Top Christian Albums chart.
Wilson was also nominated for a CMT Music Award in the Breakthrough Female Video of the Year category for her song "Rain In The Rearview."
Earlier this year, Wilson made CMT's 2024 class of the CMT Next Women of Country list with roughly 13 other female artists.
Nicole VanDyke is a reporter for The Christian Post.
