The Story of Anne Wilson: Painting Beauty with the Ashes

Picture this: in the chill of the night, a fifteen year old wakes up to blue lights flashing through her bedroom window. What’s happening around here, she must wonder.

She rushes outside, and is met by six fallen faces of men in uniform. It suddenly begins to feel somber. She darts back inside the living room to her parents.

It doesn’t look good here either. She has a bad hunch. So she walks over to her dad and drops the question. “Dad, is he dead?”

Her dad then confirms the worst of her worries – she just lost her brother – her one favorite person in the world, to a car accident.

Trusting God in grief

In this heavy moment, she is numb and struck by grief. But something happens, which eventually turns this story of grief into a beauty. In the midst of pain and grief, Anne Wilson, the fifteen year old hears the voice of God prompting her to trust in Him.

But how do you trust in such a loss, one might wonder?

Faced with tragedy, it seems humanly reasonable to question the circumstances and seek answers, sometimes with anger. It feels far from reach, to dismiss the sorrowful anger and decisively trust in God. But that is what Anne Wilson does: she lets go of her anger and trusts in God, and this is so profound of a fifteen year old.

Here’s what Anne says on letting go of her anger:

It’s very easy to be angry at the Lord and to blame Him, but the Lord really showed me that I needed Him more than anyone and that He’s sovereign and that He’s good no matter what.

Anne Wilson, YouTube

From this moment of absolute trust, Anne Wilson’s life takes a different turn.

First perfomance

A day after the news broke, Anne Wilson sits by the piano, playing Hillsong United’s ‘What a Beautiful Name’, and giving thanks for the time she had with her brother Jacob. When her parents walk in and hear it, they’re amazed and ask her to sing at her brother’s funeral.

But she’s hesitant, having not taken to the stage before. When she prays on the matter, there’s a conviction that God wants her to sing. With the help of her friends, Anne works on a cover of the song What a Beautiful Name.

On the day of the funeral, as she sings before a packed audience, Anne’s calling becomes absolute and certain. Her nervousness is gone, and even her ambition to work for NASA vanishes. Now all she wants is to praise and worship the Lord.

From here on, gospel music has a new artist!

Going viral and being signed

After the funeral, Anne uploads a video of her cover song for Hillsong United’s “What a Beautiful Name” to YouTube. Her intention is to dedicate it to Jacob. But unknowingly, this video will help launch her career in gospel music.

Within a month, the video goes viral, attracting the attention of Nashville, and eventually landing Anne Wilson a record deal with Capitol Christian Music Group in October 2019.

“My Jesus” debut: inspiration and writing

Anne met her first manager in January 2018, and afterwards, through being placed into co-writing sessions, she began learning to write songs. Her debut hit song was written in one of these co-writing sessions.

The story behind Anne Wilson’s debut song points back to her profound journey of recovery, and how she chose to walk in absolute trust in God.

After the loss of her brother, Anne had started journaling to help her process the loss.

Now years later as a songwriter, as she read through her entries, she noticed something peculiar. All through the journal, she only referred to God as “My Jesus.” It was moving to see how relational she had been with God. So she decided to run with the idea, “My Jesus” for a new song.

Similarly, the same idea had struck two prominent songwriters; Matthew West and Jeff Pardo. At a co-writing session, Matthew West approached Anne Wilson and fronted the idea ” My Jesus” to her. Anne was shocked by the concurrence, but also firmed that this was the song that she ought to write.

Together, the three songwriters; Matthew West, Jeff Pardo and Anne Wilson began writing a song from the idea “My Jesus.”

Four months later in April 2021, the song “My Jesus” was released. It was a massive success, garnering over nine million views on Facebook in only two days.

But more than mere views, the song allowed Anne to share about Jesus. Hers was not just a song, it was a reflection of her life: of how Jesus saw her through day after day, and made something beautiful out of her greatest loss.

Here’s Anne’s intended impact of the song:

When people hear this song, I want them to feel that Jesus is personal; and while our stories may look different, the same Jesus that I call “My Jesus” can be yours too.

Anne Wilson, YouTube

My Jesus went on to rank as song number one on Billboard’s hot Christian songs chart and Anne also named Anne Wilson top new christian artist of 2021.

More releases

Anne followed up her debut single with these releases:

Here are Anne’s releases in 2022:

Awards

At age 20 (in 2022), Anne Wilson was already making big strides; making track after track, topping music charts and winning awards. She scored four awards in 2022 and one nomination:

• Two K-LOVE awards – Breakout Single of the Year, Female Artist of the Year
• Two GMA Dove awards – New Artist, Pop/Contemporary Recorded Song
• Grammy Award Nomination for her album My Jesus

Hey Girl nation

Inspired by her song Hey Girl, Anne Wilson founded an organisation Hey Girl Nation. The organisation seeks to share the message of an identity in Christ to women and girls.

Upcoming projects

At the time of publishing, Anne has an upcoming song, “Living Water,” to be released February 2023.

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