A decade ago, Katy Nichole's story likely would not have been possible. That's because one decade ago, TikTok did not even exist.
Nichole was a talented-but-mostly unknown singer/songwriter from Arizona in May 2021 when she sat down at a piano and recorded a 46-second TikTok video of herself singing a tune she called "God of Possible." Within months, it had been viewed more than 80 million times.
In essence, the song was a series of prayers sung by Nichole, each ending with the phrase "In Jesus' name." Fans loved it.
"Hearing this song brought tears to my eyes," one person wrote.
Others pleaded with her to record the song in full.
"I want to sing it, please release it!!" another person said.
In January of this year, she released the full version, titling it In Jesus' Name (God of Possible). In March, she released the music video. In May, she won a K-Love Fan Award for Worship Song of the Year. In June – barely one year after her TikTok went viral – she released her self-titled EP.
"It all started with TikTok," Nichole told Christian Headlines. "And the thing is that I could have never imagined what happened would happen. It was one of those things where I took this clip, and I posted it to TikTok. And it was just the chorus of a song. And it wasn't something I ever expected to take off the way that it did.
@katynichole_ Worship with me❤️🙌😭 #worship #worshipleader #worshipmusic #worshipsongs #christiantiktok #christian #christianity #fypp #fyp #jesus#voiceeffects ♬ In Jesus Name God Of Possible Demo - Katy Nichole
"... That was the prayer that I prayed over myself. And now I get to pray over other people. And just seeing how it's resonated in different people's lives has just been wonderful."
The song spent 26 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Christian Songs chart. As of Aug. 2 – seventh months after its release – it sits at No. 2.
Nichole says she wrote it during a "season of my life that was incredibly challenging."
"I was going through quite a bit emotionally and spiritually as well – just kind of fighting through some stuff, some spiritual battles," she said. "I remember the moment that I wrote in my prayer journal. I had started this prayer journal, and it was just my way of reaching to God in a new way. Because I hadn't been able to speak those words until I could just write it down."
Originally, she said, the now-famous chorus was the song's bridge.
"And so my label was like, 'You know what, let's go in and finish that.' And so we did, we went in, we finished the song. And I went back in with the other writers of that song. And it turned into something that was just completely an encounter with the Lord."
It's not her only song on the Billboard charts. A collaboration with Big Daddy Weave, God Is In This Story, is up to No. 16 on the Hot Christian Songs chart. It is included on her new EP.
"I'm so excited about these next songs," she said. "They're another piece of the story and another part of my heart that I've been waiting to share."
Photo courtesy: ©Jason Davis Photography for K-LOVE Fan Awards, used with permission.
Video courtesy: ©Katy Nichole
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
