Bethel Music, the worship music and community of songwriters emerging from Bethel Church in Redding, CA, released the debut solo album from artist
Amanda Cook,
Brave New World, Sept. 25. The album quickly soared to the top of Billboard's Top Christian Albums chart (dated Oct. 17) amidst critical acclaim, while landing at No. 20 on the overall Billboard Top 200 with more than 19,000 albums sold.
Brave New World also hit No. 1 on the UK Official Charts Christian & Gospel Albums chart.
The new album from Cook follows four Bethel Music albums to the top of Billboard's Top Christian Albums chart, including
Tides (2013),
Tides Live (2014),
You Make Me Brave (2014) and
We Will Not Be Shaken (2015), which also became the No. 9 bestseller on the overall Billboard Top Albums chart. Furthermore,
Without Words: Synesthesia (2015),
The Undoing (2014), by Bethel Music's
Steffany Gretzinger, and
For The Sake Of The World (2013), all hit No. 2 on the Billboard Top Christian Album's chart.
The Undoing also landed at No. 20 on the Overall Billboard Top 200.
In just over five years, Bethel Music has experienced exponential growth, including its website,
www.bethelmusic.com, growing from around 100,000 visitors a month last year to over a half-million people monthly now.
"Our albums and songs are just an expression of a growing community of people who are pursuing the presence of God and are passionate about seeing His presence infiltrate every area of their lives, and every city and nation," says Joel Taylor, Bethel Music CEO. "We do have an incredible team, but what's happening with Bethel Music is far beyond our own abilities. God is orchestrating a worldwide worship movement in churches and artists around the world, and we're just grateful to be a part of it."
Bethel Music founding worship leaders, husband and wife team Brian and Jenn Johnson, lead a roster of artists that include newly signed
Leeland and
Cory Asbury, as well as
Jeremy Riddle, Amanda Cook, Steffany Gretzinger, William Matthews, Jonathan and Melissa Helser, Kalley Heiligenthal,
Hunter Thompson, Matt Stinton, Paul and Hannah McCLure and Josh Baldwin.
A few of the hundreds of songs these prolific artists have penned for Bethel Music include such well-known anthems sung around the world as "
We Will Not Be Shaken," "
One Thing Remains," "
This Is Amazing Grace" (an ASCAP "Song of the Year"), "
Love Came Down" (featured on American Idol 2012), "
Forever," "
You Are Good," "
You Make Me Brave" (GMA Canada Covenant Awards "Song of the Year"), "
It Is Well," "
God I Look to You," "
Deep Cries Out," "
Closer," "
You Have Won Me," "
Freedom," "
Ever Be," "
I Will Exalt," "
To Our God," "
Jesus We Love You," "
For The Cross," "
This Is What You Do," "
For The Sake Of The World," "
Praises," "
Pieces," "
Heroes," "
You Are My One Thing," "
Furious," and "
Chasing You."
With nearly a dozen Bethel Music singles hitting the Billboard Hot Christian Songs top 50 this year so far, the current Bethel Music multi-format hit radio single, "
No Longer Slaves," is No. 24 and climbing on the Billboard Christian AC chart. Featured on
We Will Not Be Shaken and written by Jonathan Helser, Brian Johnson and Joel Case, the song was also recently named by Justin Bieber as a "Top 3" song on his iPod playlist (
Cosmopolitan magazine).
Taking many of these worship favorites on the road, Bethel Music "Worship Nights" have seen worshippers fill to capacity major venues at events coast-to-coast and internationally. This month Bethel Music artists have toured Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and Busan, South Korea. The Bethel Music artists will also lead worship at the Influencers Conference (10/30, Atlanta), Restore Women's Conference (11/6-7, Saskatoon, SK, Canada), and Heaven Come Conference (5/25-27/2016, Los Angeles).
All the latest Bethel Music tour news, chord charts, videos and more resources, as well as detail on its first Bethel Music Kids project, Come Alive, releasing Dec. 4, can be found at
www.bethelmusic.com. Links to its social media sites include @
bethelmusic,
http://instagram.com/bethelmusic and
www.facebook.com/bethelmusic, where they have more than 1,082,000 likes.
