Jesus I Do (feat. The Clark Sisters)
Mariah Carey's guest turn in the Clark Sisters' territory reached No. 1 on Billboard's Gospel Airplay chart in May 2026 -- the Clark Sisters' fourth chart-topper, and Carey's first Gospel Airplay entry of any kind.
By Song Reviews · September 27, 2026
Mariah Carey's guest turn in the Clark Sisters' territory reached No. 1 on Billboard's Gospel Airplay chart in May 2026 -- the Clark Sisters' fourth chart-topper, and Carey's first Gospel Airplay entry of any kind.
“Jesus I Do” is a Mariah Carey record that behaves like a Clark Sisters record, and that is the smartest thing about it. The song appears on Here for It All, released September 26, 2025, and was written by Carey with her longtime collaborator Daniel Moore II and three of the Clark Sisters – Karen Clark Sheard, Dorinda Clark-Cole, and Jacky Clark Chisholm. According to The Detroit News’ reporting, the session dates to the summer of 2021: Moore had reached out to see whether the sisters were free to work on a track for Carey’s next album, and the recording lasted all day, with each singer recording her part individually.
Sharing the credits with a family that helped define the sound she is borrowing puts the song in a different category from a pop star trying gospel on for a track. Carey isn’t hosting; she is a guest, and the title is a wedding vow with a different addressee. The chart results say the gospel audience accepted the invitation. The record debuted at No. 5 on Hot Gospel Songs in the chart dated October 7, 2025, and reached No. 1 on Gospel Airplay in the chart dated May 16, 2026 – Carey’s first Gospel Airplay entry, and the fourth No. 1 for the Clark Sisters, whose first came in 2007. Lionel Ridenour, an executive at Gamma, the company that released the album, said the record brought “two generations of musical greatness” together in a way that was “ideal for stations without compromising faith or format.” That is a promotion executive’s line, but the radio result backs it up.
The reservation is that the record was built to be programmable. “Ideal for stations” is a compliment about fit, and fit is a design constraint as much as a virtue: a collaboration engineered to slot into gospel radio’s format is a safer proposition than one that risks it. What keeps the record from being a novelty is the credits page, not a risk taken in the grooves, and that makes it a very good collaboration rather than a transformative one.
7.9/10 – a crossover that respects the room it is walking into, and a Dove-nominated one at that.
Hero image: “Here for It All” album artwork, Gamma. Used under fair use for editorial commentary.