19. February 2025
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Songs Of My Life: Jenn Bostic – Jealous of the Angels

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

Jenn Bostic’s show in London in February 2024 was an outstanding experience for me. During the show, I decided that one song by the US-American Christian music artist definitely deserves a new episode of the Songs of my Life. Let me introduce you to one of the most touching songs I have ever listened to.

 

Jealous of the Angels – The Story of the Song

Jennifer Christiana Bostic was born on 3rd January 1986 in Philadelphia. However, her family moved from Pennsylvania to Minnesota, so that she in fact grew up in Waconia, Minnesota. Her father James Regan Bostic worked as a musician. He was tragically killed in a motoring accident when Jenn was ten, on 16th February 1996. This event significantly impacted Bostic, also in regards of a musical career. Her Wikipedia page quotes her with The first time I sat down at the piano after the accident, I shut my eyes and honestly felt my dad’s presence next to me. I poured my heart into those first few songs. The only way I could connect with him was when I played music. I still feel that way. After high school, Bostic studied music education in Boston and moved to Nashville thereafter.

Jenn always defined her own style of music. The Wikipedia page quotes a newspaper article with too pop for country and too country for pop. It is one of the singles of her 2013 album Jealous, but in fact has already been released in 2011 as part of the EP Change. The EP was a key factor that Bostic won five awards at the 2012 Independent Country Music Association Awards, namely Overall Winner, Best Female Country Artist, Best Musician, Best Songwriter and Country Music Song of the Year. Jealous of the Angels was also the first single by Jenn Bostic released in the United Kingdom. It topped the British singer-songwriter charts and later also became a radio song in the country. The lovely music video shows Jenn on the piano, but also browsing through family memories or visiting her father in winter in the graveyard.

There will be another angelAround the throne tonightYour love lives on inside of meAnd I will hold on tightIt’s not my place to questionOnly God knows whyI’m just jealous of the angelsAround the throne tonight

 

Further Career

The song gave a major spotlight on Jenn Bostic, who later had success with songs like Not Yet (x) or A Thousand Miles (2021), recorded alongside Brian Sutherland. Due to her individual style, Bostic concentrated on her as an independent artist and gained more and more popularity, not only in the Christian music scene. After Jealous, Bostic released three more albums so far, Faithful (2015), Revival (2018) and You Find a Way (2022). The latter includes a new version of Jealous of the Angels, which is leading into a coda with Amazing Grace. In addition, Bostic released the EP Take My Heart (Part 1) in November 2019.

 

Cover Versions

The song also gained additional popularity through cover versions. The most popular is likely the 2014 one by Celtic singer Donna Taggart from Northern Ireland. It has been streamed 68 million times on YouTube only. There are also cover versions by British-Irish country musician Nathan Carter (2017) and Welsh artist Katherine Jenkins (2018).

 

Jealous of the Angels – My Story of the Song

My story of Jealous of the Angels starts with a concert at The Listening Room in Nashville. In 2019, I just had to visit that concert of Kenny Foster & Friends. It featured three artists on stage, which I absolutely adored at that time – and still do: Kenny Foster, Sarah Darling and British Twinnie. However, there was one additional artist on stage. Jenn Bostic, who is a close friend of Darling was one of the artists on stage. One of the songs she played during the songwriters’ round was Jealous of the Angels.

Not only the story of the song (which Jenn of course shared in that round), I was deeply touched by the song. Another thing which emotionalized me significantly was the fact that my father died not too long before that, in November 2017. Due to several reasons, we missed having so many good chats we should have had between a father and his son. I was indeed Jealous of the Angels, just as Jenn Bostic sung on stage. I was in tears – and I still am when I listen to that song.

 

Jenn Bostic is a special artist

Not only due to that song, Jenn is an amazing artist to me. I felt that during that Nashville show, while listening to her music – and again, during her amazing show in London. I am atheist, I do respect religion, but I am not into it at all. Not only Jealous of the Angels touched me again when I was gifted to see her again on stage, more than four years after the show at The Listening Room.

Even though I could simply state that her music is not meant for my religious attitude, that there is no link between her lyrics and me, she warmed my heart. I loved listening to her, even though I was busy and concentrated in covering the show. Not only on stage, but also in contact to her, I have to state that she is an outstanding, lovely-hearted person. If religion always had so much love as Jenn Bostic had, maybe I would have found a way to it as well.

 

Jealous of the Angels – Spotify / Lyrics

Here is the original version of the song on Spotify:

Jenn recorded the song, together with Amazing Grace as part of her latest album. Here is the new version on Spotify:

You can find the lyrics (of the updated version), for example, here.

 

 

 

Songs Of My Life Playlist

I created a playlist with all the Songs Of My Life songs so far. It will be updated with very new episode:

Title picture: Jenn Bostic – Jealous album cover

 

Songs Of My Life

Here are the postings of the personal Songs Of My Life category:

 

Religion

Religious sites, religious music – posts tagged with Religion are closely related to believing:

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