The Blessing (song)
"The Blessing" is a song performed by Kari Jobe, Cody Carnes and Elevation Worship, released as the lead single from Elevation Worship's twelfth live album, Graves into Gardens (2020),[1] as well as Kari Jobe's third live album, The Blessing (2020),[2] on March 20, 2020.[3] The song was written by Chris Brown, Cody Carnes, Kari Jobe and Steven Furtick.[4] Chris Brown handled the production of the single.
"The Blessing"
March 20, 2020
March 1, 2020
8:34 (live version)
8:27 (album version)
4:35 (radio version)
- Elevation Worship
- Sparrow
- Capitol CMG
- Kari Jobe
- Cody Carnes
- Steven Furtick
- Chris Brown
- C. Brown
"The Blessing" was a commercial success upon its release, having debuted at No. 3 on the US Hot Christian Songs chart.[5] It peaked at No. 2 on Hot Christian Songs chart, and No. 15 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100. It has been certified gold by Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).[6] "The Blessing" won the GMA Dove Award for Worship Recorded Song of the Year at the 2020 GMA Dove Awards, and the GMA Dove Award for Song of the Year at the 2021 GMA Dove Awards. It has also garnered a Grammy Award nomination for Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song at the 2021 Grammy Awards. It was further recorded into dozens of cover versions by various artists, produced in various languages and in different parts of the world.
Background[edit]
Initially, "The Blessing" was released as music video on Elevation Worship's YouTube channel in early March 2020,[1] with Kari Jobe and Cody Carnes leading the song in a worship service at Elevation Church's Ballantyne campus on March 1.[3] Jobe, Carnes had written the song together with Steven Furtick and Chris Brown in a writing session on Thursday, February 27, 2020, at Elevation prior to leading it at Elevation's Sunday service on March 1, 2020.[3][7] The song became popular on YouTube, leading to the release of the live audio recording on March 20, 2020, to other platforms. The song's music video had garnered over 3 million views on YouTube at the time of its release.[8]
"The Blessing" was serviced to Christian radio stations on May 1, 2020.[9]
Composition[edit]
"The Blessing" is composed in the key of B with a tempo of 70 beats per minute and a musical time signature of 4
4.[10] Carnes' and Jobe's vocal range spans from F♯3 to E5.[11]
The lyrics are largely taken from the Priestly Blessing found in the Book of Numbers within the Old Testament of the Bible. [12] [13]
Commercial performance[edit]
On the Hot Christian Songs chart dated April 4, 2020, the song debuted at No. 3, while also peaking at No. 4 on the US Digital Song Sales chart.[14] The song had sold 12,000 downloads and garnered 1.3 million streams in its first week, and thus becoming Kari Jobe's and Elevation Worship's fourth top ten hit on Hot Christian Songs and Cody Carnes first top ten on the chart, as well as the highest debut for all three acts. The song is also the highest-charting faith-based song on Digital Song Sales chart in four years since Jordan Smith's rendition of "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" peaked at No. 3 in December 2015.[14]
Music videos[edit]
On March 6, 2020, Elevation Worship released the live music video of "The Blessing" featuring Kari Jobe and Cody Carnes recorded at Elevation Church's Ballantyne campus on its YouTube channel.[15] Cody Carnes released a "Live from Home" performance video featuring Kari Jobe to YouTube on March 19, 2020.[16] On March 31, 2020, a "Living Room Session" performance video of the song was uploaded by Elevation Worship to YouTube.[17] Kari Jobe published the lyric video of the song on YouTube on April 8, 2020.[18]
Additionally, many worship leaders and churches throughout the world released cover versions in their native languages. A compilation cover video was released to Youtube on November 24, 2021 featuring 12,000 worshipers singing in 257 different languages.