Latest: Hillsong Worship Drops Three New Songs Ahead of 2027 Live Album

Three new songs. One declaration: "BE HOLY BECAUSE I AM HOLY."

Hillsong Worship is releasing three brand-new songs on October 23, 2026 — "Praise the Lord, Hallelujah, Amen," "As You Are," and "Flood" — as an early preview of a forthcoming live worship album expected in February 2027. The news broke in a new GodTube Music interview with longtime Hillsong Worship member Jad Gillies, who pulled back the curtain on how the world's most influential worship collective actually writes its songs.

The announcement carries the biblical declaration "BE HOLY BECAUSE I AM HOLY" from 1 Peter 1:16 — a theme that appears to anchor the new music. For a group whose songs are sung in churches on every continent every Sunday, three new releases are not just a music story. They are a preview of what millions of believers will be singing next year.

The Three Songs: What We Know

"Praise the Lord, Hallelujah, Amen" sounds like exactly what its title promises: a full-throated declaration of praise, the kind of song built for thousands of voices at once. "As You Are" suggests the tender, come-as-you-are invitation that has marked some of Hillsong's most enduring songs — the weary-soul anthems that meet people in their brokenness. "Flood" hints at something bigger: the overwhelming, unstoppable move of God, a word that carries both judgment and mercy in Scripture.

The 1 Peter 1:16 thread — "Be holy, because I am holy" — is the surprise. Worship music in recent years has leaned heavily toward comfort and assurance, and there is nothing wrong with that. But a call to holiness is a different register: sharper, more demanding, more prophetic. If these three songs carry that theme, Hillsong Worship may be signaling a shift in the sound of global worship — from songs that soothe to songs that sanctify.

The songs arrive October 23 as a standalone preview, with the full live album expected in February 2027. The group is also appearing at the OVO Arena Wembley as part of Hillsong Conference Europe, where the new songs will likely get their first massive live outings.

Jad Gillies on How Hillsong Really Writes Songs

The GodTube Music interview, conducted by Brandon Woolum, gave fans something rarer than new music: a window into the process. Gillies explained that the congregation itself serves as the group's "head of A&R" — new songs are tested in church, sung by real congregations, before they are ever released to the world. If a song does not work on a Sunday morning in front of ordinary believers, it does not make the album.

That detail explains so much about why Hillsong's songs travel. They are not writen for radio. They are written for rooms full of people with their hands raised — tested in the only laboratory that matters for worship music, the gathered church. It is the opposite of the pop-music model, where songs are focus-grouped and engineered for charts. Hillsong's focus group is a congregation.

Gillies has been part of the Hillsong Worship story for years, and his voice carries the weight of someone who has watched the group's songs go from Sydney church services to global anthems. When he talks about the new music, he is talking about songs he has already watched move real rooms.

"The congregation serves as the group's head of A&R" — testing new songs in church before releasing them to the world. — Jad Gillies, via GodTube Music

Why Three Songs Now?

The October 23 release is a classic preview strategy: give the church a taste, build anticipation, let the songs start living in congregations months before the album arrives. By the time the live album drops in February 2027, "Praise the Lord, Hallelujah, Amen," "As You Are," and "Flood" will already be familiar to worship teams worldwide — which means the album release will feel like a homecoming, not an introduction.

It is also worth noting the timing within the worship-music calendar. The Dove Awards just wrapped, the Christmas season is approaching, and churches are planning their 2027 worship sets. New Hillsong songs landing now will be learned by worship teams over the holidays and sung in force by spring. The pipeline from release to Sunday morning has never been more deliberate.

And then there is Wembley. Hillsong Conference Europe at the OVO Arena puts these songs in front of thousands of European worship leaders at exactly the moment they are choosing next year's setlists. A song that works at Wembley in front of ten thousand voices will work anywhere.

The Holiness Thread: A Shift in Worship's Sound?

The most intriguing part of this announcement is not the release date or the album. It is "BE HOLY BECAUSE I AM HOLY." Global worship music has spent a decade in the language of grace, love, and surrender — all true, all biblical. But holiness language has been comparatively rare, perhaps because it is harder to sing about. Holiness confronts. Holiness costs.

If Hillsong Worship is leaning into 1 Peter 1:16, they are betting that the Church is ready for songs that do more than comfort — songs that call. The timing feels right. Across the world, from Gen Z revivals to underground churches, there is a hunger for a faith with edges, a Christianity that asks something. Songs about holiness may be exactly what this moment needs.

It will be fascinating to hear how "Praise the Lord, Hallelujah, Amen," "As You Are," and "Flood" carry that theme. Praise, invitation, flood — the three titles already read like a journey: celebrate, come, be overwhelmed. That is not an accident. That is songwriting as theology.

What to Watch For

October 23 is the first milestone: the three songs drop, and worship teams everywhere will start learning them. Then Wembley, where the songs meet their first arena-sized congregation. Then the long build to February 2027, when the full live album arrives with whatever else the group has been testing in church.

The deeper story to watch is whether the holiness theme spreads. If these songs catch fire — and Hillsong's track record suggests they might — expect other worship writers to follow. The sound of global worship could be about to get a little more serious, a little more demanding, a little more biblical. That would be a change worth singing about.

Three songs. One declaration. A live album on the horizon. The Church's songbook is about to get three new pages — and if the 1 Peter thread holds, they may be the most important pages Hillsong Worship has written in years. Listen on October 23. Your church will probably be singing them by Easter.

Read about more worship music in Chris Tomlin's New Album Breaks His Streaming Record, Tops Billboard and Bethel Music Releases 'All The Glory' Live as World Tour Continues. For the latest worship anthem everyone's talking about, see Andy Riemersma's 'I PRAISE YOU': The Worship Anthem Everyone's Talking About.

But the most surprising part of this story is yet to come — keep reading.