Four years after he sang in front of Kanye West’s Sunday Service Choir on “Stand Strong,” Davido has his first entry on Billboard’s Hot Gospel Songs chart. It is “Hope In You,” the song he cut with Kirk Franklin, and it debuts at No. 6 for the week of November 14. The record came out on October 30, on Franklin’s album I Am What I Am.
The opening verse keeps the doubt private. “I lose hope,” it says, “but I keep it to myself.” Then, a little past the one-minute mark, Davido answers out loud, in the Pidgin and Yoruba of a prayer, including a sevenfold “Hallelujah meje meje,” the same turn already on the record. Past the two-minute mark the prayer gets larger, asking whether heaven can hear people who are hurting and dying. The chorus only repeats “Oh my, oh my, oh my, hope is in You.”
He is listed as a co-writer on the credits, under his name David Adeleke.
Listen on Apple Music and Spotify.