Jillian Cheney

3 min read ⭑

The Grammys, held this coming Sunday, are the largest annual awards ceremony for music. 

This year, there are no real surprises in the five categories dedicated to Christian and gospel music.

Nominees include popular contemporaries such as Lauren Daigle and Maverick City Music, as well as established names in the genre like Kirk Franklin and Lecrae. 

Instead, two notable Christian artists with great music have been nominated for some of the top awards of the night. 

Get up and ‘Worship’

Jon Batiste began his career as a jazz musician — and a talented one at that. He was the leader of the band on “Late Night with Stephen Colbert” starting in 2015, but his career really launched after winning an Oscar for Best Original Score for the Pixar movie “Soul.” 

His new releases from the past few years have retained their jazz influences, but the genres he’s been inspired by and uses in his music are seemingly endless. Jazz, hip-hop, gospel, soul and indigenous spiritual chants are just a few styles featured in his 2023 album “World Music Radio.” The album speaks to a shared sense of humanity and spirituality that can — and should — be shared by all. 

He’s nominated for Record of the Year (for the song “Worship”), Album of the Year (for “World Music Radio”), Song of the Year (for “Butterfly”), Best Pop Duo/Group Performance (for “Candy Necklace” with Lana Del Ray), Best Jazz Performance (for “Movement 18’ (Heroes)”) and Best American Roots Performance (for “Butterfly”).

Raised as a Catholic and still a practicing Christian, Batiste, 37, often gives thanks to God and says he has a morning prayer ritual he follows daily. When he accepted the Grammy for Best Album of the Year in 2022 for “We Are,” he said music is a “spiritual practice.” 

“Worship,” the song nominated for Record of the Year, features a series of refrains that feel like a call to action. “Levantate” (get up in Spanish) and worship, he sings. “We are born the same / return to that place.”

After another call to “Worship!” he praises, “It’s only you that makes me all I am.”

Self-proclaimed ‘Son Of A Sinner’

Jelly Roll, an artist who makes music at the intersection of country, hip-hop, alternative rock and soul, is vocal in and out of his music about his troubled past and his relationship with God. 

The singer was the most awarded artist at the 2023 Country Music Association Awards and won Best New Artist. He’s nominated for the same award at the Grammys this year — one of the four biggest awards of the night. 

Jelly Roll skyrocketed to fame in the past year, though he’s been releasing music since 2003. Recent years saw a transition in style toward rock, then country. His debut country song, “Son Of A Sinner,” from the 2021 album “Ballads of the Broken,” charted in January last year; his debut country album from June of last year charted with greater acclaim. He now has over 11 million monthly listeners on Spotify. 

His songs heavily feature Christian lyrics that wrestle with his past, namely with drug and alcohol addiction. In tone, they range from amusing to somber.

In “Heaven,” from 2017, he sings, “Cause I believe that even all the gangsters go to heaven” and “yes, I believe that all the savage b— go to heaven.” In the hit “Need a Favor” from 2023, he takes a more somber reflection on personal faith:

I only talk to God when I need a favor
And I only pray when I ain't got a prayer
So, who the hell am I, who the hell am I
To expect a Savior, oh
If I only talk to God when I need a favor?
But God, I need a favor
I know Amazing Grace, but I ain't been livin' them words
Swear I spend most Sundays, drunk off my ass, than I have in church
Hard cover King James only been savin' dust on the nightstand
And I don't know what to say by the time I fold my hands

In interviews, he has talked about his addiction, doing jail time for aggravated robbery, and how the death of his father and the birth of his daughter inspired him to turn his life around. He was also featured in the ABC documentary titled, “Jelly Roll: Save Me.” Last month, he testified before Congress in support of anti-fentanyl legislation.  

In his acceptance speech at the CMAs, he spoke briefly about overcoming his past struggles after thanking “my Lord and my wife” by boldly proclaiming: “There is something poetic about a 39-year-old man winning New Artist of the Year. I don’t know where you’re at in your life, or what you’re going through, but I want to tell you to keep going, baby. I want to tell you success is on the other side of it. I want to tell you it’s gonna be okay. I want to tell you that the windshield is bigger than the rearview mirror for a reason. Because what’s in front of you is so much more important than what’s behind you.”

Jillian Cheney is Religion Unplugged’s Senior Culture Correspondent. She writes about film, TV, music, art and books — as well as American Protestantism and evangelical Christianity. She was Religion Unplugged’s 2020-21 Poynter-Koch fellow. You can find her on Twitter @_jilliancheney.

This article is republished from Religion Unplugged under a Creative Commons license.

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