Hillsong Worship's newly released single, which features the live medley of their latest song and a popular 2017 track, sees the highest streaming ever for a debut.
On May 21, the Australian praise and worship group debuted "Fresh Wind/What a Beautiful Name (Live)." The group's David Ware was joined by Taya Gaukrodger of Hillsong United for a duet of the song, CCM Magazine wrote.
"What a Beautiful Name" was part of the 2016 "Let There Be Light" album. With the song, Hillsong Worship won a Grammy award for Best Contemporary Christian Music Song/Performance in 2018. The track also topped the Christian Airplay charts for nine weeks, with 900 million streams globally.
On the other hand, "Fresh Wind" was released in January this year, garnering over 942,000 street week streams, Hillsong's highest audio streaming debut in the United States. It also gained more than 8.2 million streams worldwide.
Ware spoke about Hillsong's newest track to The Christian Post.
"'Fresh Wind' was born out of an urgency to see Christ's Church rebuilt, restored and rescued. I believe that there comes a time and place in every generation where there is a significantly great outpouring of the Holy Spirit. A move of God that marks a whole generation of believers and welcomes a new generation of searching non-believers home - one so great that it is as unavoidable as the sound of an explosive gust of wind," he explained.
The worship leader was hoping that the message of the song would reach anywhere it "needs to be heard."
"It was incredible to finally record the voices of our church family singing this song over every person who is yet to hear this powerful confession. Our hope is that these words and their voices fill cars, homes, offices, hallways, hospital rooms, government buildings, prisons and anywhere else that this prayer needs to be heard and sung," Ware further stated.
On the website, Hillsong Worship explained that the track articulates its prayer for the Church.
In 1992, the worship group retailed its first live CD, "Power of Your Love," under the name Hillsong Live which was later rebranded as Hillsong Worship. It featured singers and songwriters Geoff Bullock and Darlene Zschech. In 2004, the group released "For All You've Done," topping mainstream Australian pop charts.
"Hillsong United" began as Hillsong Church's youth ministry band, originally called "United Live." It was first led by Reuben Morgan and Marty Sampson. When Morgan left in 2002, he was replaced by Joel Houston and the name of the group was changed to "Hillsong United."
Hillsong's music continued to prosper through the years and its popularity even reached the United States. On album covers, the two musical brands are simply known as Hillsong. Aside from its 2016 album, the group also released "God is Able" in 2010, "Zion" in 2013, "No Other Name" in 2014, "Open Heaven/River Wild" in 2015 and the concert album, "There is More: Live in Sydney, Australia 2018." In 2019, Hillsong released the albums "Awake" and "Hay Más."
