Kirk Franklin’s GloRilla Collab ‘This Time’ Becomes His Record-Extending 10th Hot Gospel Songs No. 1
Kirk Franklin at the Recording Academy Honors Black Music Collective event held at Fairmont Century Plaza on Jan. 29, 2026, in Los Angeles. JC Olivera/Billboard
Kirk Franklin becomes the first artist with as many as 10 No. 1s on Billboard’s Hot Gospel Songs chart as “This Time,” featuring GloRilla, debuts atop the list dated Oct. 10.
Dating to the chart’s 2005 start, Franklin widens his lead over Maverick City Music and CeCe Winans, each with six No. 1s.
The song opens with 1.7 million chart-eligible U.S. streams, 2.5 million in radio audience and 1,000 sold in the week ending Oct. 1, according to Luminate.
It follows the pair’s 2024 two-week No. 1, “Rain Down on Me,” also with Maverick City Music, Kierra Sheard and Chandler Moore. GloRilla has now led with each of her Hot Gospel Songs entries.
Released Sept. 25, “This Time” is from Franklin’s I Am What I Am, due Oct. 30. The track features a verse from GloRilla and interpolates Mandrill’s 1972 song “Children of the Sun,” whose distinctive horn line was also sampled in Shawty Lo’s 2008 Billboard Hot 100 hit “Dey Know.”
I Am What I Am marks Franklin’s first double-album, with 14 tracks divided into two seven-song sets, one contemporary gospel and the other live-recorded traditional gospel. The project includes “Thank You for Everything,” featuring Karen Clark Sheard, and “Free Me Tonight,” featuring Jelly Roll.
A gospel fixture since the early 1990s, the Fort Worth, Texas, native first broke through via Kirk Franklin & The Family. Among his leaders, he has topped Hot Gospel Songs the longest with “Wanna Be Happy?,” for 45 weeks in 2015-16. “Love Theory” follows with 44 weeks at No. 1 in 2019-20.
GloRilla’s gospel ties run deeper than her two Franklin collaborations. The Memphis rapper was raised in a Christian household, sang in her church choir and on its praise-and-worship team, and has cited Franklin, Yolanda Adams, Deitrick Haddon and Tamela Mann among the gospel artists that she listened to growing up. She has 10 top 10s on Hot Rap Songs, including Tyler, The Creator’s two-week 2024 No. 1, “Sticky,” which also features Sexyy Red and Lil Wayne.
Franklin is on the road this fall, with his current arena run scheduled through early November, including upcoming stops in Miami; Tampa, Fla.; Memphis, Tenn.; Fort Worth, Texas; and Anaheim and Inglewood in California.
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