Bella Taylor Smith was 17 when she got saved at a summer camp during a worship service and realized that singing was not just something she could do — it was what she was made for. Years later, when a Voice Australia application popped up on her computer during Covid lockdowns, she felt the Lord prompting her to apply. She won. And then, rather than chasing the biggest mainstream opportunity that win could have opened, she and her husband moved to Nashville to make Christian music full time.

Worship, the local church, and music made for your living room: Bella shares the story behind her new EP For the Home, the companion piece to her earlier project For the House, and why she wanted to make two distinctly different kinds of music — one filled with scripture for the local church, and one intimate and honest enough to fill a home with the Lord's presence. She also tells the genuinely strange story of winning The Voice Australia by watching the pre-recorded finale on her then-boyfriend's parents' couch, the difference between Australian and American food ingredients, and what it means to be a worship leader whose goal is to disappear so the congregation can find Jesus.

Highlights

• Why she felt the Lord prompting her to enter The Voice Australia even though Christian music was always the plan
• The bizarre Covid finale where all four finalists pre-recorded four different endings and she found out she won watching TV
• Why she made two separate EPs, For the House for the local church and For the Home for intimate listening
• How she got saved at 15 at a summer camp worship service and knew immediately that was where she was meant to sing
• What it has been like to move from Australia, where Christianity is not culturally embedded, to the Christian music world of Nashville
• Why she believes a worship leader's job is to be as invisible as possible and simply connect people to heaven
• What her husband's production philosophy of recording with live musicians means for the intimate organic sound of her music
• Her honest take on Australian versus American food and why high fructose corn syrup is actually banned in Australia

Resources / Links / CTA

• 🌐 Bella Taylor Smith website: https://www.bellataylorsmith.com
• 📱 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bella.taylor
• 🎵 EP: For the Home
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Bethany Wohrle has been with Bethel Music since she was 17 years old. Her voice is on All Hail King Jesus and Living Hope, songs with tens of millions of streams that have been sung in churches around the world. But when her niece Junie died unexpectedly at 18 months old in February 2023, Bethany nearly didn't show up to the Nashville writing camp she had scheduled for her debut solo album just weeks later. She went anyway, and what happened in those writing rooms was not what she expected.

Grief, hope, and a God who is still good even when nothing makes sense: Bethany shares how the songs on her debut album Reason That I Sing, releasing July 10, were born not from a desire to process sadness but from a determination to write hope-filled music because she had seen too much of God's faithfulness to doubt Him now. She talks about the song So Close, written for her sister and brother-in-law as a declaration that God can bring dead things back to life, what it means to be a worship leader whose goal is to be as invisible as possible, and why walking through the hardest season of her life left her more on fire to lead people into worship than she has ever been.

Highlights

• How her niece Junie's unexpected death three years ago became the grief behind nearly every song on this album
• Why she went to the Nashville writing camp just weeks after the loss and what God did in those rooms
• Why she refused to write a song about sadness and what she chose to write about instead
• So Close, the song she wrote for her sister, and the moment they both wept listening to the mastered version together
• What she believes the role of a worship leader actually is — to be invisible and simply connect the congregation to heaven
• The woman who had never raised her hands in church and what happened when the whole room lifted them together
• All Authority, the song on the new album declaring that every fear and worry bows to the King of Kings
• What she is sensing about the movement of God right now and why she does not want to be left behind what He is doing

Resources / Links / CTA

• 🌐 Bethany Wohrle website: https://bethanywohrle.com
• 📱 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bethanywohrle
• 🎵 Album: Reason That I Sing
• 🎵 Single: He Is Here
• 🌐 Bethel Music: https://bethelmusic.com
• 🌐 Follow, share, and explore more of Crosswalk Talk
• 👉 Follow, share, and subscribe for more faith-driven conversations on Lifeaudio

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Anike grew up with a Muslim father, a conviction that some of the music she was listening to was wrong, and no idea she would one day be the first female artist signed to Reach Records. She looked up Christian remixes, found Lecrae, convinced her family to let her go to a church summer camp by calling it an internship program, and gave her life to Jesus on day three. Two days later, Lecrae showed up at the camp. She had no idea what God was setting in motion.

Christian hip hop, the gospel carried in a beat, and what it means to give God your yes even when it costs you everything: Anike shares how a high school biology project turned into freestyle circles at lunch that turned into a full-time calling, why she carries headphones everywhere so people can listen before they realize they're hearing about Jesus, and what led her to change her name from Wande to Anike as an act of obedience to God. She also talks about the new single Holy Girls, inspired by Proverbs 31, what it felt like to record her entry for the Forrest Frank contest on a camera mic at her relative's house and get selected anyway, and why she believes you don't need the perfect setup for God to use what you have.

Highlights

• How finding Lecrae through a search for Christian remixes became the first domino in her entire journey to faith
• The summer camp permission slip she got her Muslim father to sign by calling it an internship, and what happened on day three
• Why she brought headphones to school every day as her non-awkward strategy for evangelism
• What it cost her to give up a Nigerian family's expectation of becoming a doctor or lawyer to pursue music full time
• Holy Girls, the Proverbs 31-inspired single celebrating women of God who are unashamed, diligent, and fearless
• Why she changed her name from Wande to Anike and what God showed her through letting go of a brand she had built
• Recording her Forrest Frank contest entry on a camera mic at her relative's house and getting selected for the album anyway
• Her new ebook Song Release 101, giving other artists everything she had to figure out alone about releasing music legally

Resources / Links / CTA

• 🌐 Anike website: https://anike.net
• 📱 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anike
• 🎵 Single: Holy Girls
• 🎵 Single: Contagious
• 🎵 Forrest Frank collaboration: Jesus Is Alive
• 🌐 Reach Records: https://www.reachrecords.com/artists/wande
• 🌐 Follow, share, and explore more of Crosswalk Talk
• 👉 Follow, share, and subscribe for more faith-driven conversations on Lifeaudio

Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.