Brandon Lake & Jelly Roll Team Up For Powerful Dove Awards Performance
on Oct 11, 2025
The 2025 Dove Awards took place at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on October 7th and aired a few days later.
The broadcast aired on Friday, October 10th at 7:30 PM and 10 PM exclusively on TBN and the TBN+ app. It was also simulcast on SiriusXM The Message. It will be aired again on TBN and TBN+ on Friday, October 17th at 7:30 pm and 10 pm ET.
The 56th Annual Dove Awards was put on by the Gospel Music Association to “celebrate the work of today’s artists while reaching millions of people around the world.”
The GMA has been around since 1964, and according to their website, “Serves the richly diverse creatives and professionals within the Christian and Gospel music industry.”
The Dove Awards were a star-studded event that featured performances by the legendary CeCe Winans, Elevation Worship, Elevation Rhythm, for KING + COUNTRY, Gaither Vocal Band, Lauren Daigle, Brandon Lake, Jelly Roll, and many more.
A special Opry 100 performance was given by Lady A, Steven Curtis Chapman, and Vince Gill.
Presenters include Candace Cameron Bure, Crowder, Jason Crabb, John Crist, Milo Ventimiglia, Sonya Isaacs, Colton Dixon, and more.
Brandon Lake And Jelly Roll Gave An Unforgettable Performance
Just one day before the show was taped, Brandon Lake and Jelly Roll were announced as performers.
The pair performed their powerful hit “Hard Fought Hallelujah” inside the arena in the rain. Yes, rain!
“You’re not gonna want to miss this,” Lake captioned a video of himself saying, “I’ve never been rained on before inside of a building…while trying to sing.”
His video then cuts to Jelly Roll and Brandon Lake performing under the rain behind a full choir and Jon Batiste on the piano.
The duo started the performance in front of the choir, singing a powerful song that had the audience lifting up their arms in worship. Batiste, Lake, and Jelly Roll then moved behind the choir to a platform, where they sang as rain poured down.
Watch Jelly Roll and Brandon Lake’s performance of “Hard Fought Hallelujah” below.
The live performance closed out the 2025 Dove Awards after “Hard Fought Hallelujah” was named Song of the Year.
The award marked the first Dove Award for Jelly Roll who was both a co-writer and performer of the song. During his acceptance speech, Jelly Roll admitted to the crowd that he was questioning how worthy he was of speaking at the event and said he “ain’t been this nervous since I went to criminal court.”
The country singer then encouraged those watching to reach “the least” just as he was ministered to when he was in trouble with the law as a teen.
“The world is hearing about Jesus like they haven’t in decades right now. There is a revival happening in the United States of America where you can’t go on a corner and not hear about Jesus right now. And while we are hearing about Jesus, I encourage you to put faith on your feet and feet on your faith , and walk out of this building and go do for the least. They’ve heard of Jesus, now show them Jesus. Go feed the poor. Go visit the ones in jail. Go show them who Jesus was. We’re done talking. It’s time to show.”
See Jelly Roll’s passionate acceptance speech below.
