KRISTY RAM­NAR­INE

kristy.ram­nar­ine@cnc3.co.tt

Mo­ti­va­tion­al speak­er and pas­tor Luke Quam­i­na be­lieves the up­com­ing CeCe Winans More Than This: Trinidad con­cert is ex­act­ly what the coun­try needs at this time.

As prepa­ra­tions are un­der­way for the event, a sec­ond state of emer­gency has been de­clared this year amid “grave con­cerns” about a co­or­di­nat­ed threat from or­gan­ised crime gangs in­side and out­side the coun­try’s pris­ons.

“This event is very im­por­tant as it gives us a plat­form to speak to every sphere of lead­er­ship through mu­sic,” Quam­i­na said.

“We are hop­ing it brings some state of fresh air to the coun­try.”

In a week, the leg­endary gospel singer is ex­pect­ed to grace lo­cal shores to per­form at an al­most sold-out Queen’s Park Oval on Ju­ly 31.

The event is be­ing host­ed by Gates Praise Wor­ship of the First Church of the Open Bible, San Fer­nan­do, where Quam­i­na min­is­ters.

CeCe Winans has ce­ment­ed her sta­tus as one of the most ac­com­plished and cel­e­brat­ed women in mu­sic his­to­ry. Her lat­est al­bum, "More Than This" reached num­ber one on the charts and her ren­di­tion of “Good­ness of God” has had a mas­sive im­pact on many around the world.

Quam­i­na be­lieves mu­sic has the pow­er to in­spire change.

“Back in the days in Ja­maica Bob Mar­ley put to­geth­er one con­cert to say One Love,” he re­called.

“It was a sig­nif­i­cant event dur­ing a pe­ri­od of po­lit­i­cal ten­sion and vi­o­lence in Ja­maica. We in Trinidad and To­ba­go have an op­por­tu­ni­ty through this event to make a dif­fer­ence.” The One Love Peace Con­cert held on April 22, 1978, at the Na­tion­al Sta­di­um in Kingston, Ja­maica.

Quam­i­na said his team is ready to work with those in au­thor­i­ty to en­sure a smooth event.

“We are hop­ing that the state of emer­gency will not af­fect the show in any way,” he added.

“But we are not in con­trol of the ac­tiv­i­ties by the state, safe­ty is pri­ma­ry. I’m very please with the col­lab­o­ra­tion with both the pri­vate and pub­lic this far. Every­one is work­ing to­geth­er to en­sure the event is a suc­cess.”

Event part­ner Ricky Raghu­nanan and his team have been work­ing on the set up of the venue where the stage is cur­rent­ly be­ing con­struct­ed.

“Mo­men­tum is build­ing, and all sys­tems are in mo­tion to de­liv­er a tru­ly un­for­get­table wor­ship ex­pe­ri­ence,” he said.

“We’ve se­cured paid park­ing at the Man­dela carpark and there will al­so be free park­ing at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah, to en­sure smooth ac­cess for pa­trons.”

Raghu­nanan said pa­trons can ex­pect a soul-stir­ring jour­ney through CeCe’s time­less mu­sic, from trea­sured clas­sics like Al­abaster Box to wor­ship an­thems like Good­ness of God and Wor­thy of It All.

“But be­yond the stage, the re­al choir will be in the crowd of thou­sands of voic­es singing in uni­son, trans­form­ing the en­tire Oval in­to a sound of heav­en on earth,” he added.

“It will feel like one mas­sive choir, echo­ing wor­ship across the na­tion.”

CeCe Winans re­cent­ly re­flect­ed on her leg­endary ca­reer for NPR's Tiny Desk con­cert se­ries.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, she co-host­ed the 40th Stel­lar Awards with her broth­er BeBe and won Fe­male Artist of the Year at the K-LOVE Fan Awards.

Her lat­est al­bum, "More Than This," reached num­ber one on the charts.

The gospel leg­end will be joined on stage by her full band and sup­port team of over 12 mem­bers.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, the night will fea­ture in­cred­i­ble lo­cal artists in­clud­ing Gates Praise, Samuel Medas, and Jaron Nurse, all cel­e­brat­ed for their im­pact in Caribbean gospel mu­sic and wor­ship min­istry.

A 160-voice lo­cal mass choir will al­so lift their voic­es, cre­at­ing a dy­nam­ic back­drop to the night’s wor­ship.