Gospel music icon Kirk Franklin earns his 14th No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Gospel Albums chart, as Father’s Day debuts atop the Oct. 21-dated list. In the tracking week dated Oct. 6-12, the set earned 9,000 equivalent album units, with 6,000 in album sales, according to Luminate.
Franklin boasts the most No. 1s on the chart since he led for the first time in December 1993, Kirk Franklin and the Family.
“I can’t explain how it feels after 30 years to still have the beautiful opportunity to do music that pushes people to the greatest love story ever told,” Franklin tells Billboard. “Thank you!”
Father’s Day follows Kingdom Book One, Franklin’s collaboration with the Atlanta-based collective Maverick City Music, which started at its No. 2 peak in July 2022. His last solo set before his new LP, Long Live Love, launched at the apex in June 2019.
Dating to Franklin’s first chart-topper, his 14 No. 1s outpace runner-up Fred Hammond, with 10. CeCe Winans follows with seven. Franklin’s 294 weeks at No. 1 in that nearly 30-year span also mark the most for any act.
The 10-song Father’s Day was recorded amid personal struggle for Franklin, as he dealt with his family history. Notably, the man that he grew up thinking was his father passed away and, shortly after, he discovered his actual biological father through a series of DNA tests. He chronicled those events in the documentary Father’s Day: A Kirk Franklin Story.
The Father’s Day album includes collaborations with Kelontae Gavin and Maranda Curtis; LeAndria Johnson; Tori Kelly; Jonathan McReynolds and Jekalyn Carr; and Chandler Moore.
The LP’s lead single, “All Things,” led Gospel Airplay for two weeks in September, becoming Franklin’s 10th No. 1 and tying him with Tamela Mann for the most in the chart’s history. On the latest streaming-, airplay- and sales-based Hot Gospel Songs chart, it pushes 7-5 for a new best.
