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Do you tune into your Christian radio station to discover your next favourite local artist? And if not, why not? More than ever, Australia needs to support our Christian artists to be the salt of the earth, contrasting against worldly influence, and instead help build a strong Kingdom culture.

In partnership with Australian Christian Records, The Daily Declaration is piloting a monthly Christian music column featuring the official OZ 5 Top Tunes chart, artist stories, new releases, upcoming music events, and local Christian music news. If you have something to contribute, send it to news@ozchristianrecords.com.au.

Before we get into this month’s story, check out the OZ Top Tunes chart and the latest Christian music releases.

Recommended New Releases

• Alzzy – Talk is Cheap (VIC) #RnB
• Danny Alcorn – Skydiving (WA) #Soft Rock
• EMPIRE – How Sweet (VIC) #Pop
• Ezzie – Baggie Suit (SA) #Indie Pop

You can find more local Christian releases at the Australian Christian Pop Spotify Playlists.

Upcoming Events

• Freedom Music Festival, Nov 7-9 (QLD)
• Krosswerdz UPROCK 2025, Nov 7-10 (NSW)
• Limoblaze, Nov 13-16 (QLD, NSW, VIC, WA)
• Kirk Franklin Dec 15-19 (NSW, VIC, QLD, WA)
• Lecrae Reconstruction Tour, Dec 9-13 (TAS, VIC, NSW, QLD)

Read our exclusive interview with Lecrae here.

OZ Top Tunes Chart: November 2025

Compiled each month by Today’s Christian Music (TCM), which has managed Australia’s official Weekly Top 30 Countdown for over 25 years, this new chart, published by Australian Christian Records, exclusively tracks songs from Australian Christian artists.

Let’s pray this helps bring more attention to our local artists and gives them something extra to aspire towards!¹

Adelaide: Australia’s Christian Music Capital?

Adelaide is known both as the City of Churches and a UNESCO City of Music. Does that automatically make Adelaide Australia’s Christian Music Capital? A slightly biased Australian Christian Records investigates the history of Christian music in the city and exciting recent developments.

(L-R) Ezzie Dixon, Logan Watt, Myia-Jan.

Perhaps South Australian children are no longer taught this, but part of my education was learning about the founding principles of South Australia. It was to be a new settlement with both freedom of religion and separation between church and state, i.e. no state-run church.

Accordingly, many free settlers came with their own Christian traditions and established churches around Adelaide, including the Methodists, Anglicans, and notably German Lutherans who were escaping religious persecution in Prussia.

Nearly 200 years later, Adelaide has not only retained its title as the City of Churches (as well as the nation’s wine capital — so be sure to check out communion while here!), but has also, over the past few decades, built up a global reputation for music and in 2015 was recognised by UNESCO as Australia’s only ‘City of Music’.

This naturally begs the question, ‘Is Adelaide Australia’s capital of Christian music?‘

In 1974, an unassuming nun teaching music at Adelaide’s St Aloysius College reached number 4 on the US Billboard charts. Sister Janet Mead‘s rock version of the Lord’s Prayer not only received a Grammy nomination, but also kick-started ‘rock Mass’ at St Francis Xavier Cathedral, making worship more relevant to her students and that generation.

That same year, a number of Adelaide’s evangelical congregations came together for ‘Kairos ’74‘.

Inspired by the Jesus Movement in the United States, local artists, bands and performers came together to participate in what they termed a ‘cultural and Christian assault on the city’. Taking advantage of South Australia’s moniker as the ‘Festival State’, the coordinators hosted open-air concerts in Rymill Park, Elder Park and Adelaide University, as well as art installations across Adelaide, with a highlight being the Jesus March through the city.

A Christian rock band on Adelaide University’s Barr Smith lawns for Kairos ’74. (Let’s do this again!)
Image courtesy: Adelaide Jesus Centre & Jireh Christian Community

One generation later, at the turn of the millennium, Adelaide was definitely the place to be for home-grown Christian music. Guy Sebastian was singing for Youth Alive at the Entertainment Centre, Adelaide artists Michelle Tumes and then-lead singer of The Newsboys, Peter Furler (also cousin to Adelaide pop royalty Sia), were showing there was a career in Christian music beyond just Australia.

The local touring circuit was alive, too. I dj’d at many Christian raves with hundreds of attendees, including unforgettable nights at the YWAM base in the Adelaide Hills and Tabor College, and there was nearly always a gig coming up at either city pubs or churches for local Christian punk bands like Seraphs Coal and Antiskeptic.

This was a time when teenagers and young adults were unashamedly attending Christian shows and festivals, and the positive impact was critical in the development of their faith stories and is still being felt to this day.

Shifting Momentum

Unfortunately, Adelaide’s Christian music scene of late hasn’t been hitting the heights of those earlier years.

One indication has been this year’s big international Christian acts in Lecrae, Limoblaze, Called Out Music, and Kirk Franklin all skipping Adelaide on their national tours. While I’m told this is in part due to Adelaide’s geography and difficulty securing a suitable venue, this has compounded the problem further in regards to both fan development and giving opportunities to local artists to open for these acts.

Unlike earlier days, for many years, Adelaide has also gone without its own major Christian music events, or even a tour circuit or venue for local Christian artists to cut their teeth. Fortunately, though, some changes are taking place, and the momentum is starting to shift.

Through events like Heart Song Music Festival and the work of Australian Christian Records, there is now an interconnected community of local artists like Lilli, Navy Jones, Victor Claye and many others that are learning from each other, collaborating and getting broader appeal with radio airplay and industry recognition.

Heart Song Festival Director Liv Christie elaborates,

“Heart Song was established to connect musicians to Christian music networks and musicians for the purpose of support and growth in Christian music.

The Bible tells us to go and make disciples, and music has a unique way of speaking to people’s hearts. I believe music can be used to reach people for the Lord, and we want to support and encourage Christian musicians to serve the Lord in ministry.”  

ELIFIA performing at Heart Song Festival 8 on 26 October 2025.

In the worship space, Youth Alive SA stands apart in fostering generation after generation of musicians and singers for their main event worship nights, which bring together youth groups from all over the state to learn about God and praise Him.

Youth Alive SA State Director Seth Behn shares,

“For Youth Alive, we want to be a passionate expression of praise and worship, on the cutting edge musically and engaging, spirit-filled and able to connect with teenagers.

We are continuing to grow and strengthen our team depth and are looking for representation across the state.”

According to Seth, Adelaide is seeing a resurgence with multiple Adelaide churches and youth groups making music, including Dreamers, Revival City and Living Faith putting out new releases this year.

This past year has also seen the Adelaide crew of the nationwide ministry Krosswerdz reactivated with near-monthly gatherings focusing on Christian rap performances, (legal) graffiti art and hip hop culture.

Yet another music ministry of note is the Salvation Army’s Revolution Worship, which was recently recognised by Christian Media & Arts Australia (CMAA) as their 2025 winner of the Emerging Artist award. While the collective has members based around Australia, it is led by proud Adelaidean, Daniel Casey, with a mission to create a new culture within The Salvation Army with music that is ‘replicable, relatable and Holy Spirit-breathed’.

One stalwart of Adelaide’s Christian music scene is Life FM.

The ‘Send It’ Songwriting competition by Life FM and Tabor Institute of Music was a great success.

Established over 30 years ago, the station has always played local Christian music and featured numerous Adelaide artists on its rotation. Life FM Content Director Scott Curtis explains,

“Life FM has always strived to be a supporter of local music. Many artists started by having airplay, interviews or performances on air with our announcers over the years. Also being involved in local music events, including Heart Song and the Krosswerdz Fellowship events, allows Life FM to discover and promote more artists.”

Additionally, Life FM’s evening Takeover show regularly invites Rachael Leahcar (second runner-up in the first season of The Voice Australia) to introduce listeners to local new Christian artists through her ‘Behind the Mic’ segment.

According to Rachael,

“It’s a space where we can help spread faith, joy and light through music that uplifts and inspires, shining a spotlight on homegrown talent and celebrating how God works through creativity. It’s an opportunity I utilised as an up-and-coming artist and was truly grateful, so I’m honoured to do the same for others.“

Tabor student Ezzie Dixon won the competition with his track “baggy suit”, and it’s one of this month’s Recommended Releases.

Yet another longstanding supporter of the local Christian music scene is Tabor College and their Tabor Institute of Music. Head of Music Logan Watt obviously loves his job,

“One of the joys of directing a tertiary music program like TIM (Tabor Institute of Music) is seeing God’s work through the talents, gifts and outcomes of our students and graduates – and in turn using these gifts to help the community and the kingdom! Our graduates go on to become performers, music therapists, teachers, sound techs, composers and producers.”

In a new initiative, Tabor and Life FM recently partnered together on what has been their very successful ‘Send It Songwriting Competition’.

With a prize of guaranteed radio play on Life FM, the radio station put out a call to Adelaide listeners for songwriters to submit their best demos. From all the entrants, three songs were shortlisted, and then some of Tabor’s music students went to work to produce and craft them into professional, radio-friendly songs.

Listeners were then encouraged to vote on their favourite, and on 23 October, Ezzie was announced as the winner for his song “baggy suit“, beating out notable efforts by Myia-Jane and Samuel James.

In many ways, it was the perfect competition, with an opportunity for 3 emerging artists to be noticed, engagement across Adelaide through Life FM’s listening base and, additionally, valuable industry experience for Tabor’s student musicians and producers.

Everyone was a winner, and I sincerely hope it is repeated again next year, or replicated in some way by other Christian radio stations in cities across Australia.

So, considering all these recent developments, perhaps Adelaide is once again starting to regain its place as Australia’s Christian music capital?

Ultimately, though, we all know titles don’t really matter, and our ultimate goal should be to create a generation on fire for Jesus, living in Kingdom culture. To achieve this, we need to be creative, proactive and work together, because, paraphrasing Larry Norman, ‘Why should we let the devil have all the good music?‘

P.S. If you think your town or city is doing amazing things in the Christian music space, then please share at: news@ozchristianrecords.com.au.

Follow:

Life FM

• Instagram:               @lifefmadelaide
• Facebook:               @LifeFM1079
• Website:                  https://mylifefm.com

Tabor Institute of Music

• Instagram:               @taborinstituteofmusic
• Facebook:               @taborinstituteofmusic
• Website:               https://tim.sa.edu.au

Heart Song Festival

• Instagram:               @heart_song_festival_adelaide
• Facebook:               @heartsongadelaide

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Images courtesy of Ardash Muradian, Tabor Institute of Music, Youth Alive, Australian Christian Records, and Mal Graetz. 

1. Compiled by TCM based on Australian Christian radio airplay from the preceding month. [↩]