Brandon Lake, Elevation Worship’s Chris Brown reflect on No. 1 hit song 'Praise!'
Christian singer Brandon Lake says his wife was the only person who thought his collaboration with Elevation Worship and Chandler Moore for the live recording of the song "Praise!" would turn into a hit.
"We kind of did it being silly,” said Elevation Worship’s Chris Brown about the song that has been ranked No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Christian Songs chart for 22 weeks in an interview with Michael Foust for Crosswalk Headlines.
Lake, who told the outlet, “I don’t think anybody believed in 'Praise!,' except for my wife,” said he expected the song to "bomb."
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At the live recording of "Praise!" and other songs in front of a packed audience at one of Elevation Church's campuses in North Carolina, the worship singer told Crosswalk that he wanted it to be the last song performed that night because "[if] it tanks ... it bombs ... we at least had two hours of worship. No one’s gonna care, it’s energetic, they won’t pay attention.”
He continued: “The whole place just goes bananas. Like, if you haven’t seen the video, you’ve got to watch the video. And my wife was like, ‘I told you — there’s something about that song.’”
Brown concurred, adding, “it (the audience) went crazy.”
In a previous interview with The Christian Post where he discussed deconstruction and his concert tour with Phil Wickham, Lake lamented that so many young people are no longer influenced by the Church and emphasized that what youth are searching for are authentic Christian leaders, not gimmicky salesmen.
“I think my generation and younger are less and less convinced by preachers and communicators that are communicating so slick,” Lake told CP at the time.
“I know sticky statements are important because you remember them beyond Sunday, but this generation is looking for something to be communicated. God's Word is authentic; it's relevant, it's complete truth. ... I think it's important how you communicate it so that you can earn people's trust, that it's believable, that you're coming across authentic.”
Following his 2023 tour with Wickham, Lake recounted to CP stories of salvation and transformation that occurred each night.
"It just gives you all the more fire to go into the next night, especially when you’re tired," Lake told CP, underscoring the ripple effect of each individual's encounter with Jesus. “We're doing this for the one, but most likely, it's going to be hundreds if not thousands of people's lives changed.”
Nicole VanDyke is a reporter for The Christian Post.
