“Nobody can take the fact that Jesus loves me away from me”.
AK Elliott is a rising artist based in Nashville, TN, who kindly sat with me to discuss details behind her debut single “Because He Loves Me”, her artist inspiration, and what is on the radar for her growing music career.
Interview by Cody Cooksey
February 19, 2026
What does AK stand for, and how long have you gone by that?
Pretty much my whole life, for whatever reason, nobody's really been able to remember Anna Kate. They'll misspeak and say, "Anna Grace”, “Anna Claire”, or “Mary Kate,”. People have had a hard time remembering Anna Kate. In elementary school and high school, teachers would call me Anna. It was just kind of frustrating for me. So everyone in my entire family has always just called me AK. I think the only person in my family that doesn't call me AK is my sister. Everybody else calls me AK, and then eventually in high school, my friends just kind of caught on to the fact that that's the only thing my family calls me, and then they started calling me that. Then that just kind of became my name, so I was having a discussion with my team because I was listed everywhere as Anna K Elliott on all my socials. They actually had the idea, without even knowing that everybody calls me AK, for my artist's name to be AK. I was like, you know what? It's easy to remember, it's unique. It was a thing that was kind of just for my friends and family at first, but if everyone I know calls me AK, I might as well just be known as AK. That's going to be it for everyone then, not just friends and family, but everyone.
What is it like to have your song “Because He Loves Me”? You released it just a month ago and it's at over 120,000 streams. What is that like?
I was really just praying that the Lord would let one person hear it and be meaningful for them. I tried to keep that kind of heart and mindset throughout the beginning of the release process. It takes Spotify For Artists two weeks to update whenever you start it. So I couldn't see my streams for the first two weeks. I was just trying to trust God. I was expecting maybe by the end of the two weeks to have a couple hundred streams to a thousand streams at most. Then I checked my streams at the end of the two weeks and I had 20,000 streams. That was the first number I saw. So I was freaking out, obviously. I was in tears because I was not expecting it. Just to have the realization that it’s not just a statistic. Those are real people, real human beings that have heard my song. I couldn't imagine being in a stadium with 20,000 people. It was just an incredible feeling, humbling because I didn't expect that. Then the next week it was at 50,000, and now it's at 120,000, and I'm getting some radio play. I knew that God would do what He needed to do with it. It's weird because you have this baby that you developed for so long as your son. That's your child, you're afraid to put it into the world. I was having some anxiety and I tried to go into it with the mindset of “God, just do what you want to do with it”, and He's blessing that.
If you were to go on the road and do shows, who would be an ideal person to open for?
Crowder, I think just to meet him and to be discipled by him specifically. Hang out with him because he's so funny. I love Brandon Lake, too. I don't think I've got the soul to open for CeCe Winans, but I am a mega fan. I'm cliche. I love Britt Nicole, she's probably the reason that I realized I can be in worship music as a girl. I looked up to her and I want to be like her. She's inspired me a lot as a person. Then I got to meet her. She came and did a writer's rounds, and I went up to her after and I had a really long, really good conversation with her. She prayed over me and it was like we hung out. It was crazy. So I was like, “do you actually know that you're literally the reason that I'm doing this?”. I have a picture with her and everything. Also, Josiah Queen. I don't know why I'm not saying that. He's one of my biggest inspirations. He's the most down to earth, wholesome person. From what I can tell, he seems like a regular dude. I love his music. He's currently in the art that I'm making right now, in my sound. He's probably my biggest musical inspiration. We have very similar vibes there. I don't know how that happened, I wasn't really doing that on purpose. I listened to its music a lot, and he's probably my number one artist right now. I've been listening to him for a long time and my music just kind of organically started to kind of sound like his, and now all the time people are like “You sound like the girl Josiah”. I would love to open for him. I think that would be a fitting vibe.
In terms of your growing numbers, did you think any of this would happen so soon?
Absolutely not. I have an incredible team that essentially discovered me when I was 17. Sometimes it doesn't feel real because I'm about to be at 150,000 streams, but I've got $5 in my bank. I'll go to my math class and then come back to my DMs and 20 fans are there saying “your song has been so inspiring”. I feel like I'm living a double life, like Hannah Montana. My fans have been incredible. I've started getting fan mail and some really beautiful messages from people all over the world. I'm really feeling very blessed right now.
Do you have any specific verses or scripture that inspired some lyrics or the meaning behind why you're writing?
The whole song (Because He Loves Me) is based on the verse “We love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19, NKJV). That was my inspiration for the song. When I went into the writer's room with A.J. Pruis and Paul Duncan, who I wrote this song with, that was our vibe for the song. Then I was like “what if we call it “Because He Loves Me?” It’s rooted in the love and sacrifice that Jesus gives us and what He did for us on the cross as the ultimate profession of love. That's kind of where the idea for the song came from. There's a lot of verses in the song that point to fear, anxiety, worry, and we don't have to do that when we're in relationship with Christ. And that came from my personal struggle with anxiety, and my personal anxiety diagnosis, and that was one of the key points that I wanted to bring to this song. One of the main things that helped me to put my fear away and helped me to overcome the anxiety that I have is just knowing in my heart that nobody can take the fact that Jesus loves me away from me. I'm always gonna have that no matter what. My soul can rest, and I can lay my head down on my pillow at night because I know that if the world falls apart, which it won't, but if it does, and if everything is taken from me, then at least I still have the love of Christ, you know? It's a lot more profound because the song is kind of airy and happy. You can kind of dance to it, but it really comes from a very sincere place of my own personal walk with Him, and learning to trust the Lord, learning to to love God and trust him and let go. And let Him.
Are you working on any other songs? Can you tell me anything about that without spoiling anything, obviously?
I've been writing a lot. I have a lot written. I'm in the process of trying to decide which demos I actually want to do. I'm praying for God to help me discern exactly what I want to release next. I've thought about doing an EP next, but I'm trying to just enjoy what the Lord is doing with this song, because I feel like I'm gonna let the focus be this song until God says “Alright, it’s time to move on to the next thing”. So I am constantly writing. Exercising that muscle and trying to come up with good stuff, but there's nothing really right now that I'm absolutely going to release right away.
Check out AK Elliot on Instagram, Spotify, and AK ELLIOTT