Spanish-speaking Christian music has experienced tremendous growth in recent years. Some of the causes are: the influence of globalization in music consumption, the thirst for God that young people manifest, and the rise of worship spirituality.
While it is true that there is a great deal of momentum in other denominations, non-liturgical Catholic music is not far behind.
Did you expect to find Rosalia singing St. John of the Cross and surpassing 22 million plays on YouTube alone? Did you expect to hear Rigoberta Bandini asking Christ to "teach her to pray" with 3 million plays on Spotify alone?
In the English-speaking world, Justin Bieber has broken new ground by naming his experience with God in his song 'HolyLike the U.S. group Imagine Dragons, which fills stadiums thanking God with Beautiful Things.
However, Íñigo Quintero didn't need to sing in English to become the most listened artist in the world with his song "El País". If you are notin which he creates music from Heaven.
New trends
This is the new trend that music platforms around the world are facing: the spiritual restlessness that artists are explicitly expressing. Their own relationship with God.
Some even dedicate themselves exclusively to non-liturgical Christian music. This is the case of Hakuna Group MusicThe group, linked to the ecclesiastical movement of the same name, has become one of the most listened to in Spain, according to statistics for the last few years.
Luis Poveda - a priest of Opus Dei better known as Luispo- is the hidden composer behind some of his songs, as well as some of the songs most frequently heard in parishes throughout Spain: Yours are o You said yes are some of them. Also May they all be onein collaboration with Trigo 13. Luispo surpasses the figure of one hundred thousand monthly listeners only on Spotify.
Giving his music "a very human and very divine air" is the secret he reveals when composing hits that take his listeners to the top and serve them to connect with transcendence: "Every word and every chord is born from a lived, prayed experience. Living to be able to sing, with the soul in the flesh, with true lips, full of desires, hopes, battles and scars. And everything backstage, on the intimate and deep stage of the heart, where the great adventures take place, the decisive battles", he wrote.
It is the same set of motions that runs through the music of other established authors such as Jésed or Canto Católico, who have accumulated millions of reproductions of some of their songs uploaded to YouTube.
The swing of the youthful pendulum facing the industry has meant the liberation of some plots that seemed reserved for music produced on the fringes of God.
This reality became evident during the development of the World Youth Day in Lisbon 2023, which was attended by nearly two million young people. Hurricane was one of the most listened hits in Portugal in those days, consecrating the aforementioned group that was also recognized in the edition of the SPERA Awards of the Spanish Episcopal Conference in 2023.
"He who composes expresses with his heart and, when someone speaks to you from the heart, captures your attention and makes you feel that you are part of what he is telling you," said the priest Raúl Tinajero, responsible for this recognition by the Spanish bishops. Other artists who have been recognized have been: AISHA, Nico Montero, Valivan or Ixcís.
Concerts and festivals
This new air has given rise to new encounters and opportunities for many artists. For example, Christian music festivals are proliferating: Resurrection Fest, Fe Festival or the Multifestival Laudato Si stand out among many others, while presenting on their stages some of the most relevant artists of Christian music from all over the world.
They continue to be repeated with success every year and fill auditoriums as special as the amphitheater of the Rambla de Almeria or the very WiZink Center in Madrid.
There are many countries -almost all of Latin America, Africa, Oceania- that are giving great importance and strength to the new evangelization through music," said Marcelo Olima. He has promoted the Multifestival Laudato Si, together with the diocesan priest Antonio Cobo: "Music connects with the fiber of the soul, with the heart of man".
"It enhances that: to live the beauty that we are one family, which is the Church. All the charisms. Even people who are not from the Church. They see that and see a very beautiful atmosphere, with children and young people," Cobo added. Perhaps that is the secret for this music to fill the hearts of those who listen to it with "a very human and very divine air".
The one who discovered it before anyone else was Antonio J. Esteban, announcer of Radio Maria, recently deceased. We end with the memory of this record player who promoted non-liturgical Christian music when nobody was talking about it yet and created -for this purpose- the program Generation hope more than thirty years ago. He was one of the visionaries who knew how to predict the musical movement that today tops charts around the world. A movement that comes from above and continues to grow.
Priest of the Diocese of Saragossa
