Rap superstar Kanye West, who recently came to Christ and began holding a series of Christian outreach church services on his property, became the first Christian artist to win both the Top Gospel and Top Christian Album awards during Billboard’s Music Awards.
West’s album, Jesus Is King, beat out Bethel Music, Casting Crowns, Hillsong UNITED, and Skillet to take the Top Christian Album spot.
West also beat out Gospel superstar Kirk Franklin, his Sunday Service Choir, and William McDowell for the Top Gospel Album slot. West was also nominated for 4 of the top 5 top gospel song slots, winning the category with “Follow God.” The only other nomination that wasn’t West was Franklin’s “Love Theory.”
West lost the Top Christian Artist award to Lauren Daigle, but was nominated alongside Elevation Worship, For KING & COUNTRY, and Hillsong UNITED for the award. West had nominations for every category in the Christian Music awards and won a grand total of 4 out of the 6 nominations.
West is also running for President and recently dropped a campaign ad and a single about his presidential campaign. The message was centered around having hope in Christ and loving one’s neighbor. It was a call for unity among the American public. In the single, West raps about how he lets God fight his battles and how the press has been dishonest, stating “But the news ain’t on us. All the news ain’t on us. All the news ain’t honest. They wanna ignore me, rewrite the story.”
The 2020 Billboard Music Awards took place on Wednesday and had a wide range of categories hitting on every major category. This is the first time West was ever nominated for something that wasn’t secular.
Related:
Kanye West Releases New Song, Campaign Ad Urging Americans to Work Together, Rely on God
Photo courtesy: (C)Getty Images/Brad Barket/Stringer
John Paluska has been a contributor for Christian Headlines since 2016 and is the founder of The Daily Fodder, a news outlet he relaunched in 2019 as a response to the constant distribution of fake news.
