Originally published in Christian Headlines
Christian artist Lauren Daigle, who is enjoying crossover success after winning a Grammy and numerous Billboard awards this year, has set a new Billboard record with her hit album Look Up Child.
The album has spent 39 weeks in the top spot on Billboard’s Top Christian Albums chart, the most in the Nielsen Music era. Look Up Child ends the 38-week reign of Switchfoot for its The Beautiful Letdown in 2004-05. Daigle’s placement is the longest on the chart since the tally became a weekly survey, and adopted Nielsen Music data, in April 1995. In total, the album has been on the chart for 44 weeks.
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Look Up Child has sold nearly a million copies after launching at No 3 on the all-genre Billboard 200, boasting the largest week for a Christian music album since the latter list began ranking albums by equivalent album units in late 2014. The showing eclipsed secular powerhouses Ariana Grande, Drake, and Nicki Minaj. It debuted at No 1 on Top Christian Albums on September 22 2018.
Earlier this year, the record received critical acclaim when Daigle, 27, won a Grammy for best album, beating out Elevation Worship, Jesus Culture, Michael W Smith and Zach Williams, Premier UK reports. The breakout single, You Say, which she wrote with Jason Ingram and Paul Mabury, also earned her the Grammy for Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance.
On May 1, the Louisiana native earned three more prizes from the 2019 Billboard Music Awards, running the table with Top Christian Artist, Christian Song for You Say and Christian album for Look Up Child.
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“My music is having crossover appeal, but it doesn’t mean that I’m leaving one for the other or that I’m going to be swept up by one thing or the other, Daigle said in an earlier interview with the Christian Post. “For me, it’s like, ‘Oh, everything just got even more clear.’
“Everything just got clearer as to why it is that we go and love people who are outside of the walls of our church, outside of the walls that we’re comfortable with.”
Daigle’s success comes after an unsuccessful audition a decade ago for American Idol at age 17, Faithwire reports.
“It’s amazing how a ‘no’ can be detrimental in one place and how much power it can give you,” she said at the time.
The album’s achievements don’t appear to be waning, either, as Daigle recently released the video of Rescue another single from Look Up Child.
“Rescue is probably the most personal song from Look Up Child,” Daigle said in a statement.
“It was written for someone very close to me who was going through a difficult time. I wanted something that would comfort them in their time of need. That’s the purpose of the song, to give hope to people who feel lost.”
As Christian Headlines previously reported, over the past year, Daigle has also made headlines off the stage for appearing on the Ellen Show, which is hosted by DeGeneres, who is openly gay. She also appeared on The Domenick Nati Show, where the host asked Daigle how she felt about homosexuality.
“I can’t honestly answer on that,” the singer responded. “In a sense, I have too many people that I love that they are homosexual. I don’t know. I actually had a conversation with someone last night about it. I can’t say one way or the other. I’m not God. So when people ask questions like that…that’s what my go-to is. I just say read the Bible and find out for yourself. And when you find out let me know, because I’m learning too.”
