Lauren Daigle becomes first female to top Billboard Christian chart 5 times after 'Voice' appearance

By Jeannie Ortega Law, Christian Post Reporter Thursday, June 03, 2021

Two-time Grammy Award-winner and multi-platinum recording artist Lauren Daigle made history as her latest single, "Hold on to Me," is her fifth song to top Billboard's Hot Christian Songs chart.

The single was released earlier in the year. But following Daigle's appearance on the season finale of NBC's “The Voice” on May 25, the single went from No. 5 on the charts to the top spot.

MRC Data reported that the song surged by 228% to 5,500 downloads sold in the days following her appearance.

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"Hold on to Me" garnered 1.8 million U.S. streams in the tracking week. 

With five songs now gracing the top of the chart, Daigle has the most No. 1 songs on the Hot Christian Songs chart since the chart began in 2003. Carrie Underwood trails with three singles having reached the top of the chart.

Among all artists, MercyMe leads in that category with 13 No. 1s.

The songs that have previously topped Hot Christian Songs include Dailge's track "Trust in You," which led for 18 weeks beginning in March 2016. Her duet with Reba McEntire, "Back to God," landed at No. 1 for one week in 2017. Her record-breaking single, "You Say," spent 129 weeks at the top of the chart beginning in July 2018. The song is still on the chart at No. 3.

The other single, "The Christmas Song" also spent a week at the top in 2019.

It’s been almost two years since Daigle’s last solo single release. The Louisiana-born native penned “Hold On To Me” with Paul Duncan and Paul Mabury.

She wrote the song in 2019 while on the road, and it follows in the footsteps of her record-breaking crossover single “You Say,” in that it was written as a love song to God but can also be dedicated to a loved one. 

“Hold on to me when it’s too dark to see you / Hold on to me when I reach the end / Hold to me when I forgot I need you / When I let go, hold me again,” she pleads in the song’s chorus.

In a video released to Apple Music, Daigle described the song as a good reminder after 2020 to come together and "remember that being with each other, and being there for each other, and holding each other up in the worst times — is what life is truly all about."