Brandon Lake, Jelly Roll - Hard Fought Hallelujah

Christian Music

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About Brandon Lake, Jelly Roll

American worship leader/songwriter, known for 'Gratitude' and 'Graves Into Gardens', a prolific collaborator with Elevation Worship and Maverick City Music. American country/hip hop crossover artist (Jason DeFord) known for candid songs about addiction, incarceration and redemption, whose collaboration with Brandon Lake on 'Hard Fought Hallelujah' won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song.

Faith journey and beliefs

Spoken publicly about a Christian upbringing shaped by his father's worship leading. Publicly credits Jesus Christ with saving his life from addiction and incarceration, sharing an explicit Christian testimony from award stages including the Grammys, where he held up a Bible and said Jesus is 'for everybody'.

Hear Brandon Lake's faith story Hear Jelly Roll's faith story

What this song is about

Lake has said the song is 'about the battles we face, the grit throughout the fight for faith and the praise that comes after,' written partly from his own struggles with depression and anxiety; the Jelly Roll remix pairs it with Jelly Roll's public testimony of addiction and incarceration, making the song's 'hard-fought' praise explicitly rooted in both artists' documented personal struggles rather than a generic worship theme.

Sources

This sits in the Music collection on Face of Faith, films, documentaries, music and books that shaped one person's journey into Christianity. If it lands with you, explore real testimonies, bite-sized faith snippets and why Christianity.

Reflection

A 'hard fought hallelujah' captures something scripture never shies away from: praise that emerges not from ease but from struggle, sometimes offered through gritted teeth rather than effortless joy. The Psalms model this repeatedly, moving from raw lament to declared trust within the same breath, as in Psalm 13, which begins with 'how long, Lord?' and ends in praise before circumstances have visibly changed. Jelly Roll's own well-documented journey through addiction and hardship, brought alongside Brandon Lake's worship background, gives this collaboration particular weight, praise that has clearly cost something rather than being sung from comfort. This kind of hallelujah is arguably more honest and perhaps more valuable than an easy one, because it has been tested and chosen deliberately rather than assumed. For listeners in their own hard-fought seasons, struggling with addiction, loss or exhaustion, this theme offers solidarity: praise is still available even when, perhaps especially when, it does not come easily.

Questions to sit with

Have you ever had to fight hard to find praise or gratitude in a difficult season?
What does honest, costly worship look like compared to easy praise?
Who in your life has modelled faith forged through real struggle?

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