Billboard’s Top Christian Songs for 2009 and for the decade

Billboard.com has released its 2009 Year-Ender charts (okay, they did it the first week of December, but I didn’t have time to check it out until today). According to the chart, The Motions by Matthew West is the top Christian song of 2009, according to Billboard.com, and rightly so. The Motions spent more than a month at at #1, and changed thousands of lives with its encouraging message. Here are the Top 10 Christian songs of 2009:

1. The Motions, Matthew West
2. By Your Side, Tenth Avenue North
3. Revelation Song, Phillips, Craig & Dean
4. There Will Be A Day, Jeremy Camp
5. I Will Rise, Chris Tomlin
6. More Beautiful You, Jonny Diaz
7. Lead Me To The Cross, Chris and Conrad
8. Wait and See, Brandon Heath
9. Born Again, Third Day feat. Lacey Mosley
10. Free to Be Me, Francesca Battistelli

Pleasantly surprised to see Chris and Conrad’s Lead Me to the Cross in the Top 10; obviously, you don’t have to finish at #1 to place well; you can be consistent. (The same kind of chart longevity boded well for By Your Side by Tenth Avenue North, as we’ll see later.) Some other notable chart positions include Mandisa’s My Deliverer, my #1 song of 2009, finishes at #26; Britt Nicole’s The Lost Get Found finishes at #18, and Jimmy Needham’s Forgiven and Loved, also in my Top 5, a notch above Mandisa at #25.

What? You’ve never heard “The Motions”? Okay, click here.
[audio:The Motions.mp3]

Billboard also published a best-of for the decade, (2000-2009, I imagine), and these were the Top 10 Christian songs of the decade:

1. Word of God Speak, MercyMe
2. My Savior My God, Aaron Shust
3. By Your Side, Tenth Avenue North
4. The Motions, Matthew West
5. Give Me Your Eyes, Brandon Heath
6. East to West, Casting Crowns
7. Blessed Be Your Name, tree63
8. There Will Be A Day, Jeremy Camp
9. You Are My King (Amazing Love), Newsboys
10. Voice of Truth, Casting Crowns

Word of God Speak is a fantastic track, and MercyMe is a fantastic band. How can you top I Can Only Imagine? You can’t, but Word of God Speak came really close. A bit surprised that My Savior My God is #2 for the decade, especially since I thought Create Again was Shust’s masterpiece, but that single tanked. By Your Side is an absolutely phenomenal song; it was powerful in 2008, and powerful in 2009 to actually finish ahead of Matthew West’s The Motions, which finishes at #4 for the decade. No small feat for Matthew, whose You Are Everything – the first single off Something to Say, and a track I feel is superior to The Motions – finishes #17 for the decade. (Matthew is currently #1 today on the Christian charts with Give Christmas Away, a duet with Amy Grant off the OST of the new VeggieTales video.) (BTW, the highest-ranked female vocal for the decade? A guest spot by Mandisa on Lose Your Soul, #29 for the decade. Highest-ranked solo female vocal? Francesca Battistelli, squeaking in with Free to Be Me at #40.)

What? You’ve never heard “Word of God Speak”? Okay, click here.
[audio:01 Word of God Speak.mp3]

Waitaminute, you’ve never heard “By Your Side” either? All right, click here.
[audio:03 By Your Side.mp3]

To see the Top 10 Christian songs in the USA as of this week, please click here.

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