ByBill Odidi
Lifestyle Reporter
Nation Media Group
They are a diverse bunch of young, exuberant performers who have given Christian worship music a new contemporary, multicultural edge to wide acclaim around the world.
American group Maverick City Music along with the legendary gospel singer, rapper and producer, Kirk Franklin bring the eagerly awaited Kingdom World Tour 2024 to Nairobi this weekend.
They will arrive in the country, straight after tonight’s concert at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda on a tour named after the group’s highly successful Kingdom Book One album.
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The African leg of the tour has seen the group already perform to packed audiences in Johannesburg, Harare, Lusaka, Lilongwe and Dar es Salaam
Kingdom Book One is a collaboration between a group of fresh faces in contemporary worship music and the King of Urban Gospel and 20-time Grammy winner, Kirk Franklin, who is credited with popularising gospel among mainstream audiences since his breakthrough in the early 1990s.
Data released this week by music streaming platform, Spotify reveals insights in the consumption of the music by Maverick City Music and Kirk Franklin in Kenya.
The top five streamed songs by Maverick City Music on Spotify for the period between April 22 and July 22, 2024, are Jireh featuring Chandler Moore and Naomi Raine, Promises featuring Joe L. Barnes, Firm Foundation featuring Cody Carnes, Million Little Miracles also featuring Barnes and, In the Room, (Afrobeats version)
The latter song is featured on the group’s current top streamed album in Kenya, The Maverick Way (Reimagined), which was released this year containing songs from their 2023 project, The Maverick Way Complete, flavoured with different genres and collaborations.
The 31 songs on the album blend contemporary Christian music with afrobeats, hip-hop, and R&B, and features vocals by Sam Rivera, Miles Minnick, Nick Day, Evan Ford, Tasha Cobbs Leonard and Kierra Sheard.
“The purpose of the Maverick Way Reimagined album is to embrace all the music genres that reflect what our diverse group of listeners gravitate towards,” say co-founder, Jonathan Jay.
Maverick City Music was founded in the US city of Atlanta, Georgia in 2018 originally as a group of songwriters for other artistes.
The objective was to create opportunities for creatives who are often marginalised such as black people and women. According to their profile, the aim was to provide ‘a megaphone for a community of creatives that believe in Jesus and the Gospel but have been pushed to the margins of church music’.
The name ‘maverick’ reflects a break with the unspoken rules and barriers that exist in the genre.
Maverick City made their debut in 2019 with the release of two EPs: Maverick City, Vol 1 and Maverick City Vol 2 and have become a prolific recording and touring act since then.
Their debut album Maverick City Vol 3 Part 1 was released in 2020 attaining Top 10 status on the US gospel music charts, followed by Maverick City Vol 3 Part 2, a Christmas album and string of EPs.
In 2021, the album Old Church Basem*nt a collaboration with contemporary worship music collective Elevation Worship, containing the hit songs Jireh, Talk to Jesus, and Wait On You was a commercial and critical success in both the gospel and mainstream music charts.
At the 2022 Grammy Awards, Maverick City Music won Best Contemporary Christian Music Album for Old Basem*nt and they performed Jireh at the award ceremony becoming the first Christian gospel group to perform at the Grammys in 20 years.
Jireh, the Hebrew word meaning ‘The Lord will provide’ which features lead singers, Chandler Moore and Naomi Raine, remains a fan favourite and their most successful song
Kirk Franklin has said he was attracted by the group’s ability to reach new audiences, particularly their popularity online during the Covid-19 pandemic.
He started writing songs with them which resulted in the 2022 album Kingdom Book 1, recorded entirely on the grounds of a prison in Miami, Florida with the voices of 1,300 inmates, to raise awareness on the injustices of mass incarceration in the US.
Kingdom Book One (Deluxe) won Best Gospel Album at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards in 2023, with the album’s lead single Kingdom winning Best Gospel Performance and the uplifting Fear is Not My Future winning the Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance Song. Maverick City Music also performed at the Grammy ceremony for the second straight year.
According to Spotify data, the most streamed tracks from the album Kingdom Book 1 are Kingdom, Bless Me, My Life is In Your Hands and Fear Is Not My Future. My Life Is in Your Hands, is a cover version of a song was originally a hit for Kirk Franklin on his 1997 album God’s Property.
Kenya is the African country with the third highest streams on Spotify Music for Maverick Music and Kirk Franklin, behind Nigeria and South Africa.
The demographic data shows that almost 50 percent of the people streaming the music of both artists in the country are aged 18-24, more than 60 percent of whom are female.
Maverick City Music and Kirk Franklin will headline the Kingdom World Tour, Kenya concert at the Uhuru Gardens, Nairobi tomorrow evening.
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