Christian music is having its biggest mainstream moment in a generation. For the first time in 11 years, two contemporary Christian music songs simultaneously charted in the Billboard Hot 100’s all-genre Top 40. Spotify reported a 60% global growth rate in Christian/gospel streaming over a five-year period. WME’s Christian division went from booking 800 shows with 3.3 million in attendance in 2023 to over 900 shows with 4 million attendees in 2025. The genre walls are dissolving — Christian and worship songs are being mixed directly into Gen Z playlists alongside hip-hop, country, pop, and EDM, without the segregation that defined the industry for decades. What’s driving this? Luminate’s VP of music insights Jaime Marconette points to a “younger, streaming-forward fan base” that skews 60% female and 30% millennial, latching onto artists who bring genuine production quality, emotional honesty, and faith-centered messaging into a single package. The result is a Christian music landscape more diverse in sound and genre than at any point in its history — from arena worship to indie folk, gospel to hip-hop to electronic. These are the 15 artists defining that landscape in 2026. Why He’s Here: By any metric — chart performance, album sales, touring, cultural impact — Brandon Lake is the biggest artist in Christian music right now. His single “Hard Fought Hallelujah,” released November 2024, became his sixth No. 1 on the Hot Christian Songs chart, holding the top position for 34 weeks and becoming the 10th song in the chart’s history to reach the 20-week summit mark. He is the only artist with three such 20-week leaders. The Jelly Roll remix, released February 7, 2025, cracked the Billboard Hot 100 Top 40 — Lake’s first mainstream chart entry — and reached the Top 15 on Hot Country Songs, crossing genre lines in a way few CCM artists have managed. June 2025 brought his album King of Hearts, which debuted at No. 7 on the all-genre Billboard 200. He performed “Hard Fought Hallelujah” with Jelly Roll at CMA Fest in front of nearly 70,000 people, led worship on ABC’s American Idol Easter special, and swept the K-LOVE Fan Awards including Song of the Year. Billboard named him the #1 artist on its 2025 year-end Christian charts, with four songs in the year-end Top 10. His King of Hearts Tour is averaging 11,436 attendees per show in 2025–26, up from 8,199 the prior year. Lake holds three Grammy nominations for the 2026 cycle, including for “Hard Fought Hallelujah” — a song written with Steven Furtick, Chris Brown, Benjamin Hastings, and Rodrick Simmons. His collaborations reveal how central he is to the current scene: he appears as a featured artist on Josiah Queen’s Christian Airplay No. 1 “Can’t Steal My Joy,” worked with Phil Wickham on Summer Worship Nights (averaging 16,823 per show in 2025), and his catalog extends to co-writing credits on Elevation Worship’s “Praise” and “Graves Into Gardens.” Why He’s Here: Forrest Frank is the genre’s breakthrough story of 2024–2025 and the #1 artist on Billboard’s 2025 year-end Top Christian Artists chart. The former half of Surfaces — whose “Sunday Best” generated hundreds of millions of streams across platforms — launched his solo Christian career with Child of God (2024), which reached No. 1 on the iTunes chart worldwide. The follow-up, Child of God II (May 2025), hit No. 1 on Top Christian Albums and No. 12 on the Billboard 200, a crossover placement that signals his reach beyond the Christian market. His “Your Way’s Better” became one of two CCM songs simultaneously charting in the Billboard Hot 100’s all-genre Top 40 — the first time that had happened in 11 years. Average attendance at his shows nearly tripled from 2024 to 2025, rising from 2,840 to 8,320 per show on his Child of God Tour Part 2 arena trek, including sold-out stops in Nashville, Anaheim, and Tulsa. NPR described Frank as representing “a new model for faith-influenced artistry in mainstream spaces” — his lo-fi, R&B, pop, and hip-hop hybrid brings positivity and faith-centered messaging to broad audiences without relying exclusively on explicit religious language. The result is a bridge between Christian and mainstream listeners that few artists in the genre can replicate. The Collision called him a standout in 2026 for “making waves with his upbeat, electronic melodies that spread positivity and inspire listeners to live a life that reflects their relationship with Jesus,” noting he released five albums in a recent year and “puts out singles like Chick-fil-A pumps out waffle fries.” Why They’re Here: Elevation Worship is the collective that anchors the Elevation Church ecosystem and one of the most-performed worship acts on the planet. Their track “Praise” (featuring Brandon Lake, Chris Brown, and Chandler Moore) held the Hot Christian Songs chart for over 84 weeks across 2024–2025, one of the most durable runs in the chart’s history. Their album Can You Imagine? charted on Billboard and the collective placed third on Billboard’s 2025 year-end Top Christian Artists ranking, behind only Forrest Frank and Brandon Lake. Their influence extends far beyond streaming. Songs like “Graves Into Gardens,” “Do It Again,” and “O Come to the Altar” are embedded in the liturgical language of contemporary evangelical churches worldwide. The newer generation of Elevation content continues that legacy — “God Is Not Against Me,” from their 2025 release When Wind Meets Fire, held positions on the Hot Christian Songs chart throughout the year. They performed at the 2025 GMA Dove Awards and remain one of the most promoted acts in the Christian touring industry. Elevation Rhythm, the sister electronic/youth worship collective, extended the brand’s reach further with its Goodbye Yesterday tour, which included stops at New York’s Irving Plaza and Nashville’s Cannery Hall — secular venue bookings that signal the growing crossover of worship music into mainstream performance spaces. Why He’s Here: Phil Wickham is one of Christian music’s most consistent performers and a defining voice in the modern worship movement. His Song of the Saints Deluxe album includes collaborations with Lauren Daigle, Brandon Lake, Elevation Worship, Crowder, and Chris Tomlin — a who’s who of the current genre — and tracks like “Homesick For Heaven” have held No. 1 positions across multiple Christian radio charts. His song “This Is Our God” (co-written with Steven Furtick, Brandon Lake, and Pat Barrett) is among the most widely sung contemporary worship songs in evangelical churches. Wickham placed fifth on Billboard’s 2025 year-end Top Christian Artists chart and crossed over to the Hot 100 for the first time in his career in 2025. His Summer Worship Nights co-headline with Brandon Lake drew an average of 16,823 attendees per show in 2025, up from 10,325 in 2024 — one of the sharpest per-show attendance jumps in the genre. He articulated what that growth feels like from the stage to Billboard: “It doesn’t feel like I’m preaching that from the stage, hoping people will respond. It feels like people are preaching it back to me with their faith in the room.” Why He’s Here: Josiah Queen is the genre’s defining independent success story. The 21-year-old Tampa, Florida singer-songwriter self-released his debut album The Prodigal Son, reaching the top of Billboard’s Top Christian Albums chart without the backing of a major label. He was Billboard’s #1 New Christian Artist of 2024. His sophomore album Mt. Zion (August 2025) debuted at No. 1 on the same chart and launched The Mt. Zion Tour, an arena-scale run spanning the US and Canada hitting cities including Nashville, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Vancouver, and Toronto. Queen’s chart presence is backed by genuine mainstream crossover — like Frank and Lake, he broke into the Billboard Hot 100 in 2025 for the first time in his career. His summer 2025 Summer Worship Nights dates alongside Brandon Lake and Phil Wickham confirmed his positioning at the top tier of the touring market. His song “Can’t Steal My Joy,” with Lake as a featured performer, held a three-week run at No. 1 on Christian Airplay. Relevant Magazine called him “the pure definition of an independent artist” — a template for how Christian artists can reach arena audiences without major label infrastructure. Why She’s Here: Lauren Daigle remains one of the most recognizable names in contemporary Christian music, a consistent chart presence and touring force whose albums How Can It Be (2015) and Look Up Child (2018) both charted on the weekly Top Christian Albums chart for the entire 52-week eligibility period in 2025 — a sustained longevity that underscores her catalog’s enduring pull. She placed #7 on Billboard’s 2025 year-end Top Christian Artists chart and was nominated for Artist of the Year at the GMA Dove Awards, where she also performed. Beyond the numbers, Daigle’s role in the current moment is partly cultural — she was among the first wave of CCM artists who broke meaningfully into mainstream pop conversation, opening doors that artists like Lake and Frank have now walked through. She launched her own SiriusXM Music Box channel in March 2026, adding another distribution channel to a catalog that has become a radio staple in both Christian and mainstream formats. Why They’re Here: Maverick City Music is the most Grammy-decorated act in contemporary gospel, having tied Beyoncé for most awards at the 2023 Grammy Awards with four wins — Best Gospel Album, Best Contemporary Christian Music Album, Best Gospel Performance/Song, and Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song. The Atlanta-based collective pioneered a decentralized approach to worship music: instead of a single artist or voice, Maverick City rotates writers and performers, creating an ensemble model that values diversity and collaboration as theological expressions. Their 2025 year was complicated by leadership transitions — in October 2025, key members Chandler Moore and Naomi Raine announced their departure to focus on individual ministries, with Moore filing a lawsuit against the label over royalties. The collective continued operating under its TRIBL Records imprint, with Christianity Today noting its continued significance: “Maverick City invites us into a new form of worship—decentralized, diverse, and deeply Spirit led.” Their Instrumental Worship Collection released in 2025 demonstrates the range of formats through which they continue to operate. Why She’s Here: CeCe Winans is the most decorated individual artist in Dove Awards history and one of gospel’s most enduring presences. She logged two Top 10 entries on the weekly Hot Christian Songs chart in 2025, and two of her albums — Believe For It: A Live Worship Experience and More Than This — charted every single week of the 52-week eligibility period in 2025. She was nominated for Artist of the Year at the GMA Dove Awards and performed at the event at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena. A March 2026 collaboration with Terrian, “Testimony,” extends her collaborative presence into the current cycle. Winans occupies a unique position in the genre landscape — she connects the gospel tradition’s deep historical roots to the contemporary CCM moment, providing credibility and cross-generational reach that few other artists can offer. Her catalog has remained in steady commercial circulation for decades, a testament to songwriting and vocal quality that transcends trend cycles. Why He’s Here: Rave Jesus is the project of Topher Jones — also known as King Topher — a Detroit-born producer whose secular career in electronic dance music generated DJ support from Diplo, Tiësto, John Summit, and Kaskade, and stage time on the main stage at Tomorrowland, the world’s largest dance music festival. That production pedigree is what separates Rave Jesus from other artists working at the intersection of faith and EDM: he brings professional-grade electronic music into worship contexts, rather than adding Christian lyrics to amateur productions. His debut album I Met God on the Dancefloor (released October/November 2025 via Provident) features high-energy EDM remixes of Brandon Lake’s “That’s Who I Praise” and “Hard Fought Hallelujah,” among other worship tracks. The QUIX collaboration on “Hard Fought Hallelujah” pairs aggressive bass music production with the song’s triumphant message. A collaboration with Latin pop icon Thalía on “Tu Amor” and a dance-floor remix of the theme from The Chosen (“Walk On The Water Remix”) demonstrate his range of cultural access. An international tour in 2025–2026 included the Big Church Festival in the UK and the Holy Grooves Festival in the Netherlands, with additional dates in the US, Europe, and Australia. “The Lord created all the sounds that exist,” Jones has said. “So if He created them, all of them should be used to worship and glorify Him. That includes Dance Music.” The response has validated that premise — testimonies continue to come in from listeners who encountered faith through music they can actually hear on a dancefloor. His “Devil is a Liar,” produced with collaborator AndyG in 2026 and catalogued on Beatport as Mainstage / Big Room, demonstrates ongoing commitment to professional-grade electronic production that holds its own alongside secular festival anthems. Why He’s Here: Lecrae is the defining figure in Christian hip-hop and one of the artists most responsible for proving that faith-centered rap can earn mainstream credibility. His label Reach Records, founded in 2004, established the infrastructure that the Christian hip-hop ecosystem still runs on. His 2025 album Reconstruction — a personal and theological examination of deconstruction and return — represents one of the year’s most honest artistic statements in Christian music. He performed at the 2025 GMA Dove Awards, appeared on industry tours including dates with Maverick City Music, and continues to represent Christian hip-hop at the intersection of quality and cultural relevance. Relevant Magazine has consistently placed him among its most important figures in faith-centered music. His influence on the generation of Christian hip-hop artists who followed him — Hulvey, Jon Keith, Caleb Gordon — is the clearest evidence of his legacy in real time. Why She’s Here: Anne Wilson is one of Christian music’s fastest-rising female artists, placing eighth on Billboard’s 2025 year-end Top Christian Artists chart. Her sound blends country and contemporary Christian sensibilities in a way that gives her access to both markets simultaneously — not unlike the crossover template Brandon Lake established with Jelly Roll. Her track “Praying Woman” (featuring Lainey Wilson) demonstrates the country-CCM bridge she’s building, and her touring profile has expanded significantly through promoter TPR, which handles her alongside Brandon Lake, Forrest Frank, Elevation Worship, and Phil Wickham. Why She’s Here: Leanna Crawford is one of Christian music’s most consistent radio performers, placing tenth on Billboard’s 2025 year-end Top Christian Artists chart — a ranking built on sustained chart presence rather than single viral moments. Her track “Still Waters (Psalm 23)” logged significant weeks on the Hot Christian Songs chart throughout 2025, and her collaboration with Seph Schlueter, “We Sing (Joy To The World),” extended her presence into the holiday cycle. Her songwriting and vocal style target the emotional core of the CCM radio format precisely, producing tracks that resonate in both personal devotion and congregational contexts. Why He’s Here: Chris Tomlin is among the most performed Christian songwriters of the last 25 years, with songs like “How Great Is Our God,” “Holy Is the Lord,” and “Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)” embedded permanently in the global worship repertoire. He performed on Phil Wickham’s Song of the Saints Deluxe album (the “What An Awesome God” collaboration with Michael W. Smith), presented at the 2025 GMA Dove Awards, and has continued touring through Platform Artists with headlining runs at storied venues including Kia Forum and Red Rocks Amphitheatre. His presence on this list is a function of sustained cultural weight — Tomlin doesn’t need to break charts to remain one of the most consequential names in Christian music. Why He’s Here: David Crowder — performing as Crowder — has been one of Christian music’s most adventurous artists for over two decades, consistently willing to incorporate musical styles outside the CCM mainstream into his worship songwriting. His history with Elevation Worship and Maverick City Music (the “God Really Loves Us” collaboration with Dante Bowe) demonstrates his place in the collaborative ecosystem that defines the current scene. His song “Somebody Prayed” held strong chart positions in 2025. Crowder’s genre-bending approach — incorporating Americana, folk, country, and electronic elements into worship settings — has influenced a generation of Christian artists trying to reach outside traditional CCM formats. Why They’re Here: The Australian duo For King + Country (brothers Joel and Luke Smallbone) has built one of Christian music’s most consistent touring and recorded music businesses over the last decade. Their collaboration with Michael W. Smith on “Place In This World” charted across multiple Christian formats in 2025, and their A Drummer Boy Christmas Live contributed to their album chart presence through the holiday cycle. They represent the international dimension of the Christian music moment — the genre’s growth is not purely American, and For King + Country’s global touring history speaks to faith-centered music’s reach far beyond domestic radio. Four structural realities define Christian music’s current moment and explain why the genre is growing faster than almost any other. The genre wall has come down. As WME partner Mark Claassen articulated, Gen Z’s playlists don’t separate Christian and worship songs from the rest of their listening — they coexist with country, hip-hop, pop, and alternative in a single stream. This has allowed artists like Brandon Lake and Forrest Frank to break into Billboard’s Hot 100 not because they compromised their message but because the infrastructure that kept Christian music siloed has eroded. “This is the most exciting time to be in Christian music,” says Holly Zabka, president of Provident. “I don’t think we’ve ever been in this season of opportunity.” The crossover is working both directions. Jelly Roll’s appearance on “Hard Fought Hallelujah” was not a Christian artist reaching toward a mainstream collaborator — it was two artists with shared themes of struggle, faith, and redemption finding each other across genre lines. Kanye West placed ninth on Billboard’s 2025 year-end Top Christian Artists chart. The 2026 Grammy nominations include traditionally secular artists Jelly Roll, Killer Mike, and T.I. in Christian music categories. The traffic between sacred and secular music is moving both ways. EDM is opening a new front. The Rave Jesus model — professional electronic music production applied to worship contexts, anchored by genuine secular EDM credentials — represents the newest genre category expanding Christian music’s footprint. The AXIOM Label Group, with a roster including Rave Jesus, HNG 10, Sydni Alexander, Ralov, Jeremy James Whitaker, and AndyG, is building the infrastructure for Christian electronic music to develop a lasting presence on Beatport, at festivals, and on dance-floor playlists. The genre is new enough that its ceiling is genuinely unknown. The touring business is the clearest indicator. Awakening Events promoted 355 shows in 2024, selling over 820,000 tickets, and projects over 400 shows in 2026. WME CMG booked over 900 shows in 2025 with over 4 million total attendees. Phil Wickham’s Summer Worship Nights dates averaging 16,823 per show would be notable touring numbers in any genre. The arena is now a legitimate venue for Christian worship — and that changes what Christian music can be. EDM Sauce covers electronic music culture, Christian music crossovers, and the artists and genres shaping the sound of 2026. Follow us at EDMSauce.com. Top 15 Christian Artists of 2026
1. Brandon Lake
2. Forrest Frank
3. Elevation Worship
4. Phil Wickham
5. Josiah Queen
6. Lauren Daigle
7. Maverick City Music
8. CeCe Winans
9. Rave Jesus
10. Lecrae
11. Anne Wilson
12. Leanna Crawford
13. Chris Tomlin
14. Crowder
15. For King + Country
What These Artists Are Telling Us About Christian Music in 2026
Quick Reference: Top Christian Artists 2026
#
Artist
Genre
Defining Moment
1
Brandon Lake
Contemporary Christian / Worship
“Hard Fought Hallelujah” — 34 weeks #1, Hot 100 Top 40
2
Forrest Frank
CCM / Pop / R&B
“Your Way’s Better” — Hot 100 Top 40, Child of God II No. 12 Billboard 200
3
Elevation Worship
Worship Collective
“Praise” — 84+ weeks on Hot Christian Songs
4
Phil Wickham
Contemporary Worship
Summer Worship Nights avg 16,823 per show
5
Josiah Queen
Indie Folk / Worship
Billboard #1 New Christian Artist 2024, Mt. Zion Tour
6
Lauren Daigle
Contemporary Christian Pop
Two albums charted every week of 2025
7
Maverick City Music
Gospel / Worship Collective
Four 2023 Grammys (tied Beyoncé)
8
CeCe Winans
Gospel
Eight-time Dove Award winner, 2025 Top 10 chart hits
9
Rave Jesus
Christian EDM
I Met God on the Dancefloor; Diplo/Tiësto-supported production
10
Lecrae
Christian Hip-Hop
Reconstruction; founder of Reach Records
11
Anne Wilson
Country Christian
“Praying Woman” feat. Lainey Wilson; Billboard Top 10
12
Leanna Crawford
Contemporary Christian
“Still Waters (Psalm 23)” — sustained 2025 chart run
13
Chris Tomlin
Worship / CCM
Most performed Christian songwriter; Red Rocks headliner
14
Crowder
Americana / Worship
“Somebody Prayed”; Elevation/Maverick collaborator
15
For King + Country
Pop / Rock / CCM
Global touring; “Place In This World” with Michael W. Smith