Inspirational singer-songwriter and pastor Travis Greene's Crossover: Live From Music City bounds in atop Billboard's Top Gospel Albums chart (dated Sept. 9), earning 9,000 equivalent album units (8,000 in traditional sales) in its opening week, ending Aug. 24, according to Nielsen Music. The set, recorded live in Nashville on Feb. 1 and 2, arrives as Greene's second leader on the list and marks his biggest sales week to date.
"This is crazy that Crossover has reached No. 1," Greene told Billboard after hearing the news. "I'm still in awe of what God is doing. When God was giving me the songs for the album, I knew He would take them to the nations but I had no idea He would move this quickly. I'm so humbled by this and I thank Him for all of the support."
The lead single from Crossover, Greene's solo-written "You Waited," rises to a new peak on the multi-metric Hot Gospel Songs chart (which combines airplay, sales and streaming data), bumping 4-3. The move is bolstered by the track's 5-4 push on Gospel Digital Song Sales and 7-6 ascent on Gospel Airplay.
Greene first led Top Gospel Albums with The Hill, which entered the list dated Nov. 21, 2015, with 6,000 copies sold. Since its debut, The Hill has spent 95 weeks on Top Gospel Albums (with all but three of those weeks in the top 10), returning to No. 1 earlier this year for a second frame (Feb. 11). On the current Sept. 9 dated list, The Hill lifts 6-3, surging 76 percent to 1,000 units).
Greene, who pastors Forward City Church in his home base of Columbia, South Carolina, with his wife, Jacqueline Gyamfi Greene, made his first of four Top Gospel Albums appearances with 2010's Stretching Out, which debuted and peaked at No. 27. He followed with the No. 3-peaking EP Intentional in 2015.
'BEAUTY' BOWS: As Lauren Daigle's How Can It Be returns to No. 1 on Top Christian Albums for an eighth week (3-1; 4,000 units, up 6 percent), Kings Kaleidoscope enters at a personal-best No. 4 with its independently-released The Beauty Between (3,000).
For the 10-track set, the Seattle-based rock band collaborated with Christian rap and hip-hop artists including Andy Mineo, Derek Minor and Propaganda.
King's Kaleidoscope tallied two prior Top Christian Albums top 10s: 2014's Becoming Who We Are started and peaked at No. 9 and 2016's Beyond Controlopened and peaked at No. 6.
