In a world of music from Soul, Jazz, Reggae, Afro... to Classical, Acapella, Folk and countless other genres God has made available to you with which to worship Him...
Please don’t let myopic, limited, stagnant, unteachable, lazy and proud leaders who keep the musical talents under their supervision stuck within their own limited abilities tell you CCM and whatever Hillsong or Bethel does musically is all God wants in this season.
(No offense to CCM, Hillsong, or Bethel. We love you immensely.)
If I may respectfully, but bluntly and unapologetically say, however, you, the african musician will never be another Hillsong...no matter how hard you try.
Let people be who they will be.
And you, express the original, non-duplicate gifting of someone else.
God is too original, and is constantly releasing new sound for you to be a regurgitation of something you heard...
Until the South African singer with the deep, thick, rounded, almost brash sound acknowledges their style is a gift, and not an offense, to the hypersensitive acoustics of a few whose style is more airy, light, or soft, we will have the Miriam Makebas of THIS generation trying to be the Celine Dions... when their callings are entirely different.
Until the person who sings from a place of pain and has it reflected in their music can uninhibitedly utilize their sound to minister to others from the same background with love and hope, you’ll keep unsuccessfully trying to emulate the other person singing from ease and no struggle in their life; you’ll forfeit the originality and depth your music would otherwise have had, and changed the world.
I am not ashamed of my heritage.
I am not ashamed of my sound.
And no, I don’t think I particularly sound like anyone.
I don’t WANT to.
I hope I sound like no one you’ve heard before, and make the kind of music that bugs your mind and captures your attention either in criticism or admiration because it is NOT what you’ve heard before.
Let’s bring the underground over-ground so the world doesn’t think for one second longer that they are the only ones original...
...that the Church, the very body attached to the head of Christ is not the initial receptor of the never-ending creativity Christ Himself gives...
...let’s stop copying and actually give value to the unknown, the original.
No there is absolutely nothing new under the sun. You’re right.
But you forget, there is ever-increasing creativity above the Sun where the Son’s heaven is.
Let’s not wait until those keen enough to capture the new things are dead before we hail their ideas as being revolutionary.
Especially in the church.
Please stop creating content and talent for the world while ignorantly following the footsteps of others and gleaning leftovers while foolishly aspiring to be as famous with second-hand material.
Yours intensely, but with love today,
Tomi Favored.