Dolly Parton Scores First Top 10 on Hot Christian Songs Chart With Zach Williams Duet ‘There Was Jesus’
Country legend Dolly Parton earns her first top 10 on both the Hot Christian Songs and Christian Airplay charts, as her duet with Zach Williams, “There Was Jesus,” enters the upper tier on both of Billboard’s faith-based surveys (dated July 11).
The track lifts 12-7 on the streaming-, airplay- and sales-based Hot Christian Songs chart and 13-8 on Christian Airplay, up 46 percent to 6.8 million audience impressions, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data. The song also corralled 1.1 million U.S. streams and sold 3,000 downloads in the tracking week.
Williams adds his sixth top 10 on Christian Airplay and fifth on Hot Christian Songs. He has earned two No. 1s on each chart.
The collab marks Parton’s first Hot Christian Songs entry and second on Christian Airplay, following her turn on an updated version of for King & Country’s “God Only Knows,” which reached No. 41 last September. (The original ruled Christian Airplay for 10 weeks beginning in April 2019.)
“There Was Jesus” bowed at No. 6 on Christian Digital Song Sales last October, arriving as Parton’s fourth top 10 on the chart. It hit No. 2 last November, and places at No. 4 this week. (She has additionally notched two top 10s on Gospel Digital Song Sales, in 2012-13.)
Also last November, Parton achieved her first No. 1 a Billboard dance chart, as “Faith,” with Galantis and featuring Mr. Probz, topped Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales.
Parton made her Billboard chart debut in January 1967, when “Dumb Blonde” entered Hot Country Songs. Inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1999, she has scored 25 No. 1s (among 55 top 10s) on Hot Country Songs, the most leaders among women. She’s also the only artist to have appeared in the list’s top 20 in each decade from the ’60s through the 2010s. On Top Country Albums, Parton boasts seven leaders, among 45 top 10s.