Still (Live)
Jonathan McReynolds says he first noticed Jamal Roberts during Roberts' run on American Idol -- and 'Still (Live)' is the rare reality-show-to-gospel crossover that actually justifies itself.
By Song Reviews · September 13, 2026
Jonathan McReynolds says he first noticed Jamal Roberts during Roberts' run on American Idol -- and 'Still (Live)' is the rare reality-show-to-gospel crossover that actually justifies itself.
Jamal Roberts won American Idol Season 23 in 2025, and by his own account it was that run – not a church circuit, not a demo tape – that first put him on Jonathan McReynolds’ radar. “Still (Live)” is the record that came out of that, a 2025 collaboration now nominated for the 2026 Grammy for Best Gospel Performance/Song, and it’s worth taking seriously precisely because the reality-TV pipeline into gospel music is usually a punchline rather than a real career path.
What holds the track together is that neither singer treats the collaboration as a stunt. McReynolds writes the way he always has – plainspoken, more conversational than showy – and gives Roberts room to bring the size and control a season of televised competition singing actually built in him, without either performer overreaching to prove the pairing was worth doing. It’s a quieter record than its origin story might suggest, which turns out to be the right call: a song about stillness, sung by two people who don’t need to oversing to make the point.
7.9/10 – a reality-TV-to-gospel crossover that works because both singers underplay it rather than lean on the story.
Hero image: Jonathan McReynolds portrait, 2018. Photo credit: Sister Circle TV, licensed under CC BY 3.0.