The directive – in the form of emails, text messages and word of mouth – was urgent: to spread the word about a live recording of the gospel music industry’s biggest stars in response to the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that hit the already poverty-stricken nation of Haiti, impacting an estimated three million people with a death toll some say could top 100,000.
It came from Kirk Franklin, who was moved to act while watching the horrific images broadcast on CNN Wednesday night from his hotel in Nashville. The next night he took the stage of an already planned prayer service of gospel industry professionals and insiders to make an impassioned personal plea to his fellow artists: to take part in the recording of “Are You Listening: A Love Song for Haiti” to raise funds to help those in Haiti so desperately in need.
The response was overwhelming for what Franklin had dubbed as the gospel community’s answer to “We Are the World,” with more than 150 participants joined swiftly. BeBe & CeCe Winans, Yolanda Adams, Marvin Sapp, Natalie Grant, Donnie McClurkin, Mary Mary, Shirley Caesar, Jeremy Camp, Marvin Winans, J. Moss, Dorinda Clark-Cole, Karen Clark-Sheard, Kiki Sheard, Bishop Paul Morton, Donald Lawrence (as producer) and Micah Stampley and James Fortune (as choir members) participated in an endeavor that was becoming more important than the one that brought them to Music City for the 2010 taping of the 25th Annual Stellar Awards. Check out the song
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article courtesy of Gospel Music Channel.com
