A gospel album released by Kanye West over Christmas has reached number two on the Billboard Top Gospel Albums chart.
Jesus is Born was released on Christmas Day and is just one place behind his first Christian album release, Jesus is King, which debuted at number one last October and has remained in the top spot for the last nine weeks.
Jesus is Born is performed by his Sunday Service choir and is comprised of songs taken from West's popular Christian music events.
West launched Sunday Services last year. They started out as an intimate gathering of close friends and associates but grew over the course of the year, recently filling out Lakewood, the basketball arena-sized megachurch of Joel Osteen in Houston, Texas.
West has arranged and conducted the music but does not sing on the album, which is a collection of new arrangements of Christian songs like "Excellent" and "More Than Anything", and re-arranged secular songs like "Weak" and "Ultra Light Beam".
Despite being a newcomer to the Christian music scene, West made Billboard history when Jesus is King reached number one on five of its charts - the Billboard 200, Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, Top Rap Albums charts, Top Christian Albums and Top Gospel Albums.
Adding to his feat, every song from the album filled out the top 11 tracks on the Hot Gospel Songs charts and top 10 on the Hot Christian Songs chart, beating established Christian artists.
