Anne Wilson – My Jesus

The first song Anne Wilson ever recorded made her the first woman to debut at No. 1 on Billboard’s Christian chart — a song she first sang at her brother’s funeral.

Anne Wilson had never made a record when My Jesus became one. Released in April 2021 as her debut single, it entered Billboard’s Christian chart at number one — making the teenager from Lexington, Kentucky, the first female artist ever to debut in the top spot there. It stayed at number one longer than any other Christian song of 2021. Wilson had not spent years grinding through the industry to get there. The song that launched everything began at the lowest moment of her life, sung from a piano bench at a funeral.

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In 2017, Wilson’s older brother Jacob, who was twenty-three, died in a car accident. He was, by her account, her best friend and the person she looked up to most. In the depth of that grief she found herself drawn to the piano, worshipping and singing as a way to survive the loss. Her mother, hearing her, asked her to sing at Jacob’s funeral. Wilson did — and later described that night as the first time she heard God’s voice clearly, a moment that reframed her whole understanding of faith. Prompted by friends and family, she posted a video of herself singing to YouTube. She had no plan for it to become anything.

From a viral clip to a record no woman had set

The clip found its way to Nashville management, and within a few years Wilson had a deal with Capitol Christian Music Group. When it came time to write her breakthrough single, she walked into the room with a title in mind — and discovered her co-writers, the veteran songwriters Matthew West and Jeff Pardo, had each independently arrived with the same idea. Together the three built My Jesus into a direct, plainspoken declaration of faith aimed at anyone in pain: a song that tells the listener, whatever they are carrying, that the same Jesus she leaned on is available to them too. Jonathan Smith produced it.

The response was immediate and enormous. The music video drew millions of views within months, and the single became Capitol CMG’s biggest debut launch from a new artist in nearly a decade. It topped both the Hot Christian Songs and Christian Airplay charts, and it turned a 19-year-old with no prior releases into contemporary Christian music’s brightest new star almost overnight. The full-length album that followed in 2022, also titled My Jesus, reached number one on the Top Christian Albums chart. Wilson has since built a lasting career — a second album, Rebel, arrived in 2024 — but it all traces back to the song she never intended to release, written out of the worst thing that ever happened to her. That, she has said, is exactly the point: that something devastating could be turned into something that helps other people heal.