Brandon Lake and Nick Jonas Release The Author in May 2026
Brandon Lake and Nick Jonas released The Author at the start of May 2026, turning a late-2025 collaboration tease into a finished single. The release also pairs Lake’s Contemporary Christian Music lane with Jonas’s Sunday Best era, which had kept listeners guessing about where the song would land.
Late-2025 clip
Towards the end of 2025, Lake shared an unexpected clip of him working on a song with Jonas. That short preview drove the speculation: fans debated whether the session was feeding Jonas’s forthcoming album Sunday Best or Lake’s genre-blurring new project.
The new release resolves that split-screen interest with an original single built as a relatively traditional Contemporary Christian Music track. Lake and Jonas trade verses across a swelling, rousing piano-driven instrumental, and the arrangement adds an emphatic drum pattern as it reaches a powerful crescendo.
The Author and Hope
At the start of May 2026, the pair also released a remix of Jonas’s Sunday Best stand-out Hope. That gives the rollout two entry points: a brand-new collaboration in The Author and a fresh version of a song already positioned inside Jonas’s project.
The Author leans into surrender and identity, with Lake singing, “Picked up the Book for the first time in agesStill washed me clean with the dust on the pagesMy life is a story I struggle to writeBut is it one worth telling? Is it one You like?” He follows that with, “So who am I? Who am I?Am I just a poor preacher's prodigal son?A troubled child, running wildChasing the glory instead of the OneWho says that I, even IHave something still left to offer?So who am I? Who am ITo question the pen in the hands of The Author?”
Pastors’ sons
Both of their fathers used to be pastors, which gives the lyric’s language about trauma, worth, and faith a sharper edge. Lake puts that tension into the line, “I see trauma, I see worthlessYou see something You can work withI see weakness, I see failureYou see something good on paperAnd I've seen ashes turn to beautyI've felt heaven working through meI've seen panic turn to powerFelt Your peace in my darkest hour.”
The result is a collaboration that reads less like a one-off crossover and more like a deliberate launch strategy around two related releases. For listeners, the practical takeaway is simple: the teaser from late 2025 has now become a two-song rollout, with The Author carrying the main statement and Hope extending the reach of the Sunday Best cycle.
