'Hard Fought Hallelujah' made Brandon Lake + Jelly Roll 'bros'

Brandon Lake‘s already found success in Christian music, but he now has his first country hit and a CMA nomination thanks to his collaboration with Jelly Roll.

“I wrote the song ‘Hard Fought Hallelujah’ with some friends of mine last year, and then I released it,” Brandon explains. “And just thinking about the lyrics of this song, I knew it would resonate with Jelly Roll. I thought it might be a long shot, but we reached out, having no idea that Jelly Roll had already heard the song on TikTok.”

Luckily, timing was on Brandon’s side, since Jelly had recently scaled back his screen time.

“A week [later] he threw his phone away, switched to a flip phone,” Brandon says. “And so he was like, ‘I love this song.’ My team reaches out and was like ‘Hey, would you jump on this song?’ having no idea what’s going on. He was like automatically … ‘100% yes, I love this song.’ And we just hit it off and became bros.”

You’ll find “Hard Fought Hallelujah” on Brandon’s King of Hearts album, which also features Gabby Barrett on the track “As for Me & My Home.”

Thanks to their collaboration, Brandon and Jelly will also vie for musical event of the year at November’s CMA Awards.