Sinach named one of Africa’s most influential women 

Nigerian gospel singer Sinach has made it to Avance Media’s list of the 100 most influential African women for the first time.

The company behind it is based in Ghana and compiles the list from public nominations every year. The influential women are selected from 34 African countries and are considered to be leaders and role models in various fields.

Sinach shared an article about her being on the list on Saturday, August 22^nd with the following caption:

“And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you (with abundant increase of favors) and make your name famous and distinguished, and you will be a blessing (dispensing good to others).
Genesis 12:2 AMPC”

A wave of success

Sinach seems to be riding on a wave of success this year. She started out receiving a gold plague from YouTube for reaching one million subscribers on the platform, which she is the first Nigerian gospel artist to do.

In March, she celebrated her 47^th birthday by releasing a new song, “All Things Are Ready,” which now has 760,000 views on YouTube.

Two months later, Sinach could see her name topping Billboard’s Christian Songwriters chart, beating stars like Kanye West.

Sinach is the first African person to make it to the top of the chart, and she stayed there for 10 consecutive weeks.

The Billboard charts account for the online and physical sales, radio play and online streaming of songs released in the United States.

“Way Maker” paved the way

It is believed that Sinach’s “Way Maker” is responsible for a lot of her success on the chart.

“In short, Sinach has accumulated the most points out of any other Christian market songwriter for the past seven weeks. My analysis is that the large number of recorded versions of the song ‘Way Maker’ is adding up to this accomplishment and acknowledgment. The other songwriters on this list have dozens of different songs recorded by other artists that are comprising their ‘points total,’” Les Moir, A&R Ambassador at Integrity Music Europe said in May.

“Way Maker” was released in the end of 2015 and is Sinach’s biggest hit internationally. The song has more than 155 million views on YouTube and almost 8 million plays on Spotify.

Since its release, several other Christian artists have covered “Way Maker,” and their streams and plays benefit Sinach on the chart because she wrote the song.

Among the contributing artists are Michael W. Smith, Leeland and Maranda Curtis.

“Way Maker” also paved the way for three GMA Dove Music Awards nominations for Sinach last week. She is nominated in the categories Song of the Year, Spanish Language Recorded Song of the Year and Worship Recorded Song of the Year.