Anne Wilson's songs reach broad audience, crossing over to mainstream

Anne Wilson is wholly embracing who she is, a country and Christian singer/songwriter.

In April, Wilson released her album Rebel. At the moment, Rebel is No. 1 on Billboard's Top Christian Album chart as well as No. 10 on Billboard's Top Country Album chart.

One of the songs on her album is called 'Songs About Whiskey,' which had some Christian fans worried about the singer. 

"I've had some fans reach out already and be like, 'OK, now, that kind of worries me like, have you gone off the deep end? Have you left God behind?' And I'm like, 'Just wait and listen to the song and then come back to me," says Wilson in a recent interview.

The song talks about singing what you know, and the young artist shares that she knows her faith. That is the reason she sings about Jesus wherever she goes. Wilson's career in music has allowed her to crossover and play for Christian and secular markets. 

"I've performed it at a bar, and I've performed it at a church, and it's the same response in both scenarios. I love it. It's something brash. It's like, what do I write songs about?" says Wilson. "It's the things that I love, and in my life, it's my faith and my family. I think it's a fresh perspective on a song about whiskey that really hasn't ever been written before. And it's so fun."

Wilson walked away with two Dove Awards in 2022, one for New Artist of the Year and the other for Pop/Contemporary Recorded Song of the Year for 'My Jesus.' Crossing over again Wilson was nominated for CMT Music Award in the Breakthrough Female Video of the Year category.

"I had had this moment of my career just feeling I was too country for Christian — like, my songs were just not being played on Christian radio because they were too country. But yet the message was Christian, and it honestly fired me up to go, 'You know what? I'm not going to please Christian music. And I'm not going to try to change who I am to please country music. I'm going to just be authentically who I am.' And so it fired me up to go write a song about what it means to be a rebel."