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Single cover. Provident (digital single) (2019)
"There Was Jesus" is a single by Zach Williams and Dolly Parton. It was released on October 3, 2019, by Provident Records, as the second single from his Rescue Story album. The song was written by Williams with Casey Beathard and Jonathan Smith. The track was produced by Jonathan Smith. It peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot Christian Songs chart. The song won Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song at the 63rd Annual Grammy Award and has been certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.

Track listing

Original digital download
  • There Was Jesus (Zach Williams, Casey Beathard, Jonathan Smith) 3:43

Piano Version digital download​
  • ​There Was Jesus (Piano Version) (Zach Williams, Casey Beathard, Jonathan Smith) 3:38

Music videos

The music video was produced by Nashville-based production company Gear Seven and was released on April 23, 2020. A performance edit of the video was released on March 11, 2021.

Commercial performance

"There Was Jesus" debuted at number 17 on the Billboard Hot Christian Songs chart dated October 19, 2019. It peaked at number two on the chart dated August 1, 2020, its twenty-eight week on the chart. It charted for 52 weeks. The single peaked at number one on both the Billboard Christian Airplay chart and the Billboard Christian AC chart. It also reached number 29 on the Billboard Digital Song Sales chart and number 108 on the Billboard Bubbling Under the Hot 100 chart.

Accolades

The single won Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards in 2021. It was nominated for Best Christian Song as the 2021 Billboard Music Awards. It received two nominations at the 2021 GMA Dove Awards: Song of the Year and Pop/Contemporary Recorded Song of the Year.

It has been certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for 1,000,000 units.

Personnel

Credits are adapted from Apple Music.
Performance
  • Kris Donegan – electric guitar
  • Ian Fitchuk – piano, organ
  • Taylor Johnson – electric guitar
  • Tony Lucido – bass
  • Dolly Parton – duet vocals
  • Danny Rader – electric guitar
  • Jonathan Smith – programming, keyboards, acoustic guitar, bouzouki
  • Aaron Sterling – drums, percussion
  • Zach Williams – lead vocals
Production
  • Joe Baldridge – recording engineer
  • Daniel Davis – assistant engineer
  • Josh Ditty – assistant recording engineer, overdub engineer
  • Paul Rossetti – editing engineer
  • Diane Sheets – vocal producer
  • Jonathan Smith – producer
  • Howard Willing – recording engineer

Alternate artwork

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Alternate single cover taken from Zach Williams Facebook page. (2019)
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Alternate single cover from after the music video was released. (2020)
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Single cover. Provident (digital single) (2021)