The Making of Are You Listening: A Love Song for Haiti, Kirk Franklin & Friends
GMC Produces Official Music Video for Gospel Music Community’s
Historic All-Star Recording To Benefit Haiti Earthquake Victims
Atlanta, GA — 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 one of the most popular artists in contemporary gospel music today – Kirk Franklin – who was moved to act while watching the horrific images broadcast on CNN Wednesday night January 13 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.
“We see these people as God’s children,” Franklin said. “We want to do our part, and I just want people to know that the gospel community can respond to a powerful natural disaster.”
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 swiftly joining the cause. BeBe & CeCe Winans, Yolanda Adams, Marvin Sapp, Natalie Grant, Donnie McClurkin, Mary Mary, Shirley Caesar, Jeremy Camp, Marvin Winans, J. Moss, Smokie Norful, Dorinda Clark-Cole, Karen Clark-Sheard, Kiki Sheard, Donald Lawrence, Bishop Paul Morton, Micah Stampley and James Fortune would participate in an important endeavor in addition to the one that brought them to Music City, the 2010 taping of the 25th Annual Stellar Awards.
Franklin said, “It’s a song God gave me after 9-11, but by the time I finished it the timing had passed and I was just never able to marry it to anything. But as I watched what was going on in Haiti, the Lord brought it to my attention that it would be perfect. We recorded it as quickly as we could so that we could get it to radio and other outlets with all of the proceeds going to the people of Haiti.”
CeCe Winans believes it’s only fitting that gospel artists lead the way. “That’s what gospel is about…” Winans said, “Loving people and being the extended hands of God.”
