Highway To Heaven

Highway To Heaven is Nina Hagen’s twentieth studio album and her second full‑on gospel project, released March 27, 2026 on Grönland Records, fifteen years after Personal Jesus and four years after the more rock‑oriented Unity. Produced with longtime collaborator Warner Poland, it finds the 71‑year‑old “Godmother of Punk” returning to the music of Mahalia Jackson, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Kitty Wells, and mid‑century American gospel while filtering it through her own history of punk, reggae, and cabaret‑theatre performance. The 14‑song, 41‑minute set includes “Everybody’s Gonna Have a Wonderful Time Up There,” “Never Grow Old” (with Nana Mouskouri), “Walk With Me Jesus,” “Trouble of the World,” “Somebody Prayed for Me,” “Hand It Over” (with Daniel Welbat), “There’s a Highway to Heaven” (with Gitte Hænning), “Dust on the Bible,” “Dry Bones,” “Everyone Wants to Go to Heaven,” and “Gospel Ship.”

Arranged as a kind of whirlwind tour through Southern gospel, Americana, rockabilly, reggae, and rock, the album opens with a hyper, almost rockabilly take on Lee Roy Abernathy’s “Everybody’s Gonna Have a Wonderful Time Up There,” then moves through a reverent, country‑gospel “Never Grow Old” with Mouskouri, a stormy “Trouble of the World” inspired by Hagen’s lifelong love of Mahalia Jackson, and a punk‑edged “Somebody Prayed for Me” where her old confrontational energy resurfaces. The title track, “There’s a Highway to Heaven,” serves as a tribute to Sister Rosetta Tharpe, its call‑and‑response vocals between Hagen and Hænning giving the record one of its emotional high points. Critics describe HiGHWAY TO HEAVEN as a lively, genre‑defying gospel‑rock‑pop album: sometimes ramshackle, sometimes uneven (particularly the reggae‑flavoured “Dry Bones,” “Dust on the Bible,” and “Gospel Ship”), but powered by Hagen’s undimmed conviction and eccentric charisma, turning what could have been a simple tribute into a deeply personal act of faith, memory, and stubborn artistic freedom.

Highway To Heaven is Nina Hagen’s twentieth studio album and her second full‑on gospel project, released March 27, 2026 on Grönland Records, fifteen years after Personal Jesus and four years after the more rock‑oriented Unity. Produced with longtime collaborator Warner Poland, it finds the 71‑year‑old “Godmother of Punk” returning to the music of Mahalia Jackson, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Kitty Wells, and mid‑century American gospel while filtering it through her own history of punk, reggae, and cabaret‑theatre performance. The 14‑song, 41‑minute set includes “Everybody’s Gonna Have a Wonderful Time Up There,” “Never Grow Old” (with Nana Mouskouri), “Walk With Me Jesus,” “Trouble of the World,” “Somebody Prayed for Me,” “Hand It Over” (with Daniel Welbat), “There’s a Highway to Heaven” (with Gitte Hænning), “Dust on the Bible,” “Dry Bones,” “Everyone Wants to Go to Heaven,” and “Gospel Ship.”

Arranged as a kind of whirlwind tour through Southern gospel, Americana, rockabilly, reggae, and rock, the album opens with a hyper, almost rockabilly take on Lee Roy Abernathy’s “Everybody’s Gonna Have a Wonderful Time Up There,” then moves through a reverent, country‑gospel “Never Grow Old” with Mouskouri, a stormy “Trouble of the World” inspired by Hagen’s lifelong love of Mahalia Jackson, and a punk‑edged “Somebody Prayed for Me” where her old confrontational energy resurfaces. The title track, “There’s a Highway to Heaven,” serves as a tribute to Sister Rosetta Tharpe, its call‑and‑response vocals between Hagen and Hænning giving the record one of its emotional high points. Critics describe HiGHWAY TO HEAVEN as a lively, genre‑defying gospel‑rock‑pop album: sometimes ramshackle, sometimes uneven (particularly the reggae‑flavoured “Dry Bones,” “Dust on the Bible,” and “Gospel Ship”), but powered by Hagen’s undimmed conviction and eccentric charisma, turning what could have been a simple tribute into a deeply personal act of faith, memory, and stubborn artistic freedom.