Brandon Lake Surprised and Thankful for Phenomenal Success of Chart-Topping 'Praise!'
- Michael Foust Crosswalk Headlines Contributor
- Published Aug 06, 2024
The rhythm-heavy hit song Praise! has dominated Billboard’s Hot Christian Songs chart for over 20 weeks, yet the singers and songwriters behind it say they were initially skeptical about its success.
“I don’t think anybody believed in Praise!, except for my wife,” Brandon Lake said.
“We had no idea that it was going to be something that would actually resonate. We kind of did it being silly,” said Elevation Worship’s Chris Brown.
The rhythmic song, recorded before a live audience at Elevation Church in North Carolina, features the voices of Elevation Worship along with Lake and Chandler Moore.
Its unique blend of worship and rhythm recorded in front of a live audience has helped it stay on the Billboard chart for more than 60 weeks, including 21 at the top spot. On YouTube, the live version has nearly 100 million views.
“I was super-excited about other songs [on the album],” Lake said. “And I remember us going into that live recording that night, I was like, ‘Hey, put Praise! at the very end of the night.’ Worst-case scenario, it tanks, you know, it bombs, and we at least had two hours of worship. No one’s gonna care, it’s energetic, they won’t pay attention.”
Lake said it was impossible to know how the studio “practice” version would translate into a live setting.
Elevation Worship, Brown said they recorded it mostly for fun, not anticipating any success. But when the live audience heard it for the first time, “it went crazy,” he said.
“The whole place just goes bananas,” Lake said. “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.’”
The hit song is actually two songs combined into one.
“All of the verses and the bridge [in Praise!] were a bridge of a different song,” Lake said.
The songwriters combined the verses and the bridge with the famous chorus and Moore chanting, “Let’s every breath … that has breath … praise the Lord,” Lake said.
“We didn’t realize that we had something really special,” Lake said. “... It just turned into this monster of a song. And so it’s been really cool to watch it go global and just hearing that song in Africa and churches all over the world. It’s been really beautiful.”
Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/Terry Wyatt/Stringer
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
