Nia Allen Tops Gospel Airplay With ‘Wait (2020)’
Singer-songwriter and worship leader Nia Allen banks her first leader on Billboard‘s Gospel Airplay chart (dated May 1), as “Wait (2020),” her first entry on the chart, ascends from No. 4 to No. 1. In the tracking week ending April 25, it gained by 14% in plays, according to MRC Data.
“Wait” is from Allen’s six-song EP Every Nation, released last June. She penned the song with her father, Milton Ruffin.
“I wrote ‘Wait’ many years ago,” Allen tells Billboard. “I was in the midst of making a decision and I didn’t know what to do. I was walking down the street, and these lyrics came to my mind: ‘I’m gonna wait until I hear from you … I’ll wait for you to see me through.’ This is a song I’ve certainly had to live out. I’ve been singing it for years, and now the world is being exposed to it. So, for it to be No. 1 at Billboard is a huge honor. I’m excited, grateful and humbled all at the same time.”
Adds Allen, “We’re still in the midst of a pandemic, and people are hurting and looking for hope. It is my prayer that the lyrics of ‘Wait’ will provide healing and encouragement to all of those who are distressed and searching for answers.”
‘It Is My Prayer That the Lyrics Will Provide Healing’
Nia Allen, a graduate of Boston’s Berklee College of Music, is currently based in Los Angeles and recently received her doctorate of ministry degree from Azusa Pacific University. She is working on her sophomore album.
“Wait” is the second rookie single by a solo woman to lead Gospel Airplay in a span of three weeks, after Jokia’s “Yahweh” dominated the April 17-dated chart, marking the narrowest gap between No. 1s by women unaccompanied by other acts in the ranking’s 16-year history.
The quickest prior turnaround was the five-month and one-week break between Yolanda’s “Be Blessed,” which led for three weeks starting in August 2005, and CeCe Winans’ “Pray,” which ruled for two frames in January 2006.
