Gospel music in 2022 had a new face. Or rather, many faces, and that was exactly the point.
Maverick City Music, the Atlanta-founded collective known for its racially and stylistically diverse roster of songwriters and worship leaders, entered 2022 on the momentum of a Grammy win, an emerging national touring presence, and a "Jireh" recording that had taken hold in worship communities across denominations. By the end of the year, they had performed at the BET Awards alongside Kirk Franklin, received seven GMA Dove Award nominations, and won two Dove Awards, including Gospel Worship Album of the Year.
The story of Maverick City Music's 2022 is, at its core, a story about what happens when a model of worship rooted in authenticity, inclusion, and musical range meets a cultural moment ready for it.
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The Grammy Foundation: February 2022
Maverick City Music began 2022 having already crossed a significant threshold. At the 64th Grammy Awards in April 2022, the collective, alongside their collaborative partner Elevation Worship, won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Christian Music Album for Old Church Basement (Wikipedia). The win recognized an album that had already generated the breakout track "Jireh" (featuring Chandler Moore and Naomi Raine), which peaked at No. 1 on the Hot Gospel Songs chart and No. 8 on Hot Christian Songs.
The Grammy performance of "Jireh" at the 64th ceremony was also historic: Maverick City Music and Elevation Worship became the first Christian gospel group to perform at the Grammy Awards show in twenty years, a platform that reached an audience far beyond the traditional Christian music ecosystem.
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"Jireh" and the Viral Worship Moment
To understand Maverick City Music's 2022 breakthrough, "Jireh" is the necessary starting point. The track, co-written for Old Church Basement and released as a single in March 2021, continued its growth arc well into 2022, driving streams and worship community adoption across a range of denominations and worship contexts.
"Jireh" demonstrated a capacity that distinguished Maverick City's best work: the ability to be musically complex enough for experienced listeners and spiritually immediate enough for collective worship. Its lyrical content, rooting worth in divine acceptance rather than achievement, resonated particularly in communities where the prosperity gospel narrative was being questioned.
The song's viral reach was not driven by traditional Christian radio playbook mechanics. It spread through organic sharing, church services, online worship communities, and social platforms. The model was closer to how independent music finds its audience than how Christian music historically promoted itself, and it worked at a scale that commanded industry attention.
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The BET Awards: June 2022, Kirk Franklin Passes the Baton
On June 26, 2022, at the BET Awards in Los Angeles, the moment most associated with Maverick City Music's mainstream visibility arrived. Kirk Franklin, the sixteen-time Grammy-winning artist who holds the record for most wins in the BET Awards' Dr. Bobby Jones Best Gospel/Inspirational category, performed with Maverick City Music on the BET Awards stage, delivering "Kingdom" from their collaborative album Kingdom Book One and Franklin's 1995 classic "Melodies From Heaven" (Gospel Music Association).
When Franklin won the Dr. Bobby Jones Best Gospel/Inspirational Award that evening for his collaboration with Lil Baby, he physically turned to Maverick City Music, who were standing behind him on stage, and handed them the award, publicly declaring them "the next generation of gospel music" (BET, June 2022).
The gesture was not scripted promotional language. It was one of gospel music's most recognized figures making a public succession acknowledgment, and doing it on the most-watched night in Black entertainment. The industry took note.
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The GMA Dove Awards: Seven Nominations, Two Wins
At the 53rd Annual GMA Dove Awards in October 2022, Maverick City Music led all artists with seven nominations, including Artist of the Year, one of the category's most significant distinctions (Tennessean, August 2022). Their seven nominations also included recognition for:
- Worship Recorded Song of the Year (radio version of "Jireh," with Chandler Moore and Naomi Raine)
- Gospel Worship Recorded Song of the Year ("Breathe" with DOE, Chandler Moore, Jonathan McReynolds)
- Contemporary Gospel Album of the Year (Jubilee: Juneteenth Edition)
- Gospel Worship Album of the Year (Tribl Nights Atlanta, with Tribl)
They ultimately won Gospel Worship Recorded Song of the Year for "Breathe" and Gospel Worship Album of the Year (GMA).
Across the two major Christian music recognition events of 2022, the Grammys and the Dove Awards, Maverick City Music earned recognition at the highest level, in categories spanning both industry credibility and genre-specific excellence.
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The Model: What Maverick City Proved in 2022
The Maverick City Music approach to worship is structurally different from the corporate Christian music model that dominated the sector for decades. Rather than centering a single lead artist with a managed public persona, the collective model elevates songwriters, worship leaders, and musicians who contribute specific gifts without requiring a single-star framework.
The multicultural composition of the group, across racial lines and denominational traditions, was not a marketing decision. It was a theological one: the collective's founding vision was that the Bride of Christ is multiracial, and the worship it generates should reflect that. In 2022, that vision was recognized at the industry level with some of the most significant awards the gospel world offers.
For artists in the faith music space, Maverick City's 2022 offered a concrete case study. The year validated that worship music could grow an audience organically through quality and authenticity, reach mainstream recognition through the industry's established award structures, and operate within a collective model that didn't require the traditional star-making apparatus.
Joshua Mollohan and Mollohan Production Inc. have worked in the faith music production space since 2020, with a consistent emphasis on authentic production and community, a value alignment that makes Maverick City's 2022 moment both directly relevant and commercially instructive for faith-based artists navigating similar questions about reach, identity, and industry positioning.
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FAQ
Q: How many GMA Dove Award nominations did Maverick City Music receive in 2022? Seven nominations, tying Matthew West for the most in the 2022 cycle. Their nominations included Artist of the Year, Worship Recorded Song of the Year, Gospel Worship Recorded Song of the Year, Contemporary Gospel Album of the Year, and Gospel Worship Album of the Year (Tennessean).
Q: What happened at the 2022 BET Awards with Kirk Franklin and Maverick City Music? Kirk Franklin performed "Kingdom" and "Melodies from Heaven" with Maverick City Music at the BET Awards. When Franklin won the Best Gospel/Inspirational Award, he handed the award to Maverick City Music on stage and publicly declared them "the next generation of gospel music" (BET).
Q: What is "Jireh" and who performed it? "Jireh" is a worship song from the Old Church Basement collaborative album by Maverick City Music and Elevation Worship. It features lead vocals by Chandler Moore and Naomi Raine. It peaked at No. 1 on the Hot Gospel Songs chart (Wikipedia).
Q: Did Maverick City Music perform at the Grammys in 2022? Yes. They performed "Jireh" at the 64th Grammy Awards, becoming the first Christian gospel group to perform at the Grammy show in twenty years (Wikipedia).
Q: What is the Maverick City Music collective model? Maverick City Music operates as a rotating collective of songwriters, worship leaders, and musicians rather than a single-artist or duo format. The group's multiracial, multi-denominational composition is central to its theological identity and creative approach.
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