Brandon Lake gives substantial credit to Jelly Roll for his new popularity outside of the Christian world. But Lake was doing well on his own before their recent chart-topping duet “Hard Fought Hallelujah.”
Lake is a multi-Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, and worship leader who has earned more than 2.5 billion career streams. He wrote “Hard Fought Hallelujah” with Steven Furtick, Benjamin William Hastings, Chris Brown, and Jason Bradley DeFord. He joined Jelly Roll to sing the duet at the Grand Ole Opry, on American Idol, and to a packed house during CMA Fest at Nissan Stadium.
“I’ve been so inspired by Jelly Roll’s story,” Lake told American Songwriter. “We came out with this song and I was like, ‘Man, I’d really love to share this song with somebody.’”
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“Hard Fought Hallelujah” is on Lake’s new album King of Hearts, which is now available. He described the duet as country grit and soul with a positive message wrapped in struggle. Given Jelly Roll’s rocky path to redemption, he thought the Nashville-area native would be the perfect singing partner. Lake reached out without knowing Jelly Roll had already heard the song on TikTok.
Jelly Roll Had Never Heard of Brandon Lake
“He didn’t know who I was, but was like, ‘This song rips. This thing is amazing,’” Lake said. “He was paying attention, waiting for it to come out. So when his team reached out and was like, ‘Hey, Brandon wants you to jump on this song. He was like, ‘I’m all in.’”
The men connected over the phone. Lake said what he loves about their friendship is that it was never his goal to turn “Hard Fought Hallelujah” into a chart-topping hit. He just wanted to sing it with someone who had lived the lyrics.
The men sing: I’ll bring my hard-fought, heartfelt| Been-through-hell hallelujah (ooh, ooh)| And I’ll bring my storm-tossed, torn-sail| Story-to-tell hallelujah, oh
“We got on the phone, and we talked about life and being a father and being a husband and traveling and balancing all of that,” Lake said. “And at the very end, we’re like, ‘Okay, so should we do this song together?’ And he’s like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m in.’”
Their relationship has grown from potential collaborators into a true friendship.
“I’ve just so much love for him,” Lake said. “And getting to do this together in front of hundreds of thousands of people is just such an honor, knowing that it’s actually not just entertainment, it’s really helping people. That’s the message of this song, and he’s lived that out.”
“Hard Fought Hallelujah” is on ‘King of Hearts’
While “Hard Fought Hallelujah” rings like a faithful arena rock anthem, Lake said his new King of Hearts album will be a sonic blend of various genres.
“It’s country, rock and roll, beautiful melodic ballad-type stuff,” he explained. “It’s just everything, every expression that I love to use — my voice and the kind of songs I like to write. There’s a song for everybody.”
Lake will launch his King of Hearts tour in the fall and said he’s “excited to sing these new songs for people.” If people are long-time Lake lovers or just discovered him with Jelly Roll or at CMA Fest, he promises they’ll find songs to connect with on King of Hearts.
“If you’ve never heard of me, maybe you were at CMA Fest, you caught my set, and you’re like, ‘Okay, this was some awesome energy, lemme check out this record.’ Yeah, there’s something for everyone. There are songs to make you cry and songs to make you get up and run laps. It’s everything I love with the foundation of a message that’s hopefully giving people faith and hope to keep going.”
(Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images for Jelly Roll’s Goodnight Nashville )
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