*Tamela Mann has reached a new peak in her gospel music career, with “Live Breathe Fight” planting her at the top of Billboard’s Gospel Airplay chart for the weeks of March 28 and April 4 — bringing her career total to 13 No. 1s on the chart, Billboard reports.
The achievement places Mann in rare company. She is now the all-time leader among women on the Gospel Airplay chart and tied with Kirk Franklin, making the two artists the most decorated acts in the chart’s history. It is also her seventh consecutive chart-topper.
“Thirteen No. 1s on Billboard’s Gospel Airplay chart — this is amazing,” Mann told Billboard. “And to be tied with my brother Kirk Franklin, both of us from Fort Worth, Texas, it’s just incredible. I’m just as grateful now as I was for my first No. 1. I’m honestly in amazement.”
Mann’s run at the top of gospel radio dates back to 2012, when “Take Me to the King” dominated the chart for 25 weeks. Over the years, she has added several more commanding runs, including “Change Me,” holding down the rankings for 14 weeks in 2017, and both “God Provides” and her version of “I Can Only Imagine,” each logging 13 weeks in 2016 and 2013, respectively.
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Mann attributes the staying power of gospel music on the radio to its emotional truth. “What makes a gospel song work on radio today is the message,” she said. “Speaking to what people are going through and encouraging them … I really believe it’s the words that connect and help songs become No. 1s.”
She acknowledged the gospel icons who laid the foundation. “I think about the people who came before me — the Hawkins family, Andraé Crouch, Vanessa Bell Armstrong, the Clark Sisters. Those are the voices I grew up listening to and learning from,” Mann said.
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