Maverick City Music’s ‘Promises’ Tops Christian & Gospel Charts
Plus, Karima leads Gospel Airplay with her rookie hit "Redeemer."
Maverick City Music‘s “Promises,” featuring Joe L. Barnes and Naomi Raine, hits No. 1 on Billboard‘s streaming-, airplay- and sales-based Hot Christian Songs and Hot Gospel Songs charts dated Jan. 15.
For the Atlanta-based Maverick City Music, “Promises” is their first leader on Hot Christian Songs and their fourth chart-topper on Hot Gospel Songs. It’s Barnes’ first No. 1 on each ranking.
As for Raine, she visited the Hot Gospel Songs summit via her feature on Elevation Worship and Maverick City Music’s collaboration “Jireh” (also featuring Chandler Moore). The track led for two weeks last April (and hit No. 8 on Hot Christian Songs).
Barnes and Raine are both members of Maverick City Music.
Barnes wrote “Promises” with Keilla Alvarado, Dante Bowe, Carrington Gaines, Lemuel Marin and Aaron Moses.
The song simultaneously leads Christian Airplay for a second week. In the tracking week ending Jan. 9, it drew 9 million audience impressions, according to MRC Data. It first led the list dated Dec. 25.
“Wow! No. 1,” Raines told to Billboard after hearing that “Promises” had crowned Christian Airplay. “This is incredible to me because we didn’t go into this thinking or even imagining that this this song would have such an impact on the world.”
Meanwhile, “Promises” ends 18 weeks of Kanye West topping both Hot Christian Songs and Hot Gospel Songs. His “Hurricane” dominated for 12 weeks beginning Sept. 4 and “Praise God” led for six frames beginning Dec. 4.
‘Redeemer’ reigns: Meanwhile, Karima scores her first No. 1 on Gospel Airplay with her first entry, “Redeemer.” The song increased by 28% in plays in the tracking week.
“Redeemer” is the first debut entry to hit No. 1 on Gospel Airplay since Evvie McKinney’s “Just Like God,” which led for a week in September.
Karima (last name Kibble) is a New Orleans native and a member of gospel trio Virtue, with Ebony Holland and Heather Martin. The threesome has rolled up five top 10s on Top Gospel Albums, starting with its self-titled debut set which reached No. 6 in 1997. Its most recent LP, Fearless, hit No. 3 in 2016.