Gen Z’s love for Gospel music boosting the faith genre’s comeback

With the Easter Weekend at the doorstep it’s commonplace for grown adults to indulge in Gospel ditties to lift their spirits.

But new data from Spotify that was collected over a period of 90 days has shown that GenZs are the biggest consumers of Gospel music, so much so that the religious genre is experiencing a comeback on the streaming platform.

Gen Z, youth born between 1997 and 2012, are seemingly ditching congregating inside the four walls of a church building for individual worship in their own time.

The numbers

According to Spotify, Christian podcasts and gospel music consumption among Gen Zs has grown significantly, with the former seeing a 44% growth in South Africa.

In Kenya, 69% of podcast consumption has grown while Nigeria has seen a 482% jump.

The music growth paints such an interesting picture in the three countries, one that attests to the country’s faith and spiritual backgrounds.

Nigeria leads at 1228%, with Kenya and South Africa at 365% and 288%, respectively.

Including Ghana, in the aforementioned countries, the peak listening day is Sunday, which is expected as that is when most people go to church. But interestingly, Tuesday comes up as the next most popular day for Gen Z to stream gospel content.

Here in South Africa, Thursday takes the third spot, while Kenyans’ thirst for upliftment is between Monday and Saturday for the third most popular day.

Mornings, between 7:00am – 10:00am are the top times when Gen Zs fiend for their Gospel fix the most.

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Mzansi’s little angels

According to the streaming platform, South African Gen Zs are leading the pack with their Gospel playlists as the numbers reveal that Mzansi youth has created more than 400 000 gospel playlists.

In Nigeria there were a 140 000 Gospel playlists, while Kenya had 70 000, with Ghana coming in last with 45 000.

Joyous Celebration is the most streamed group by Mzansi’s youth, tailed by Spirit Of Praise. US contemporary worship music collective Maverick City Music sits as the third favourite.  

The top five streamed artists are rounded up by US groups, Elevation Worship and Hillsong Worship respectively.

When it comes to top streamed albums, Spirit Of Praise’s Spirit of Praise, Vol. 8 (Live) and the Vol. 9 (Live) sit atop in that order.

Clap and tap group Lejwe La Motheo Artists Development’s Thapelo Yaka is the third most played album.

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