Award-winning American gospel artiste CeCe Winans delivered a strong set at the Jamaican leg of her ‘More Than This’ tour, held at King’s House in St Andrew on Emancipation Day, August 1.

Coming out the gate with the songs ‘Lord and Friend‘ and ‘Too Late to Lose‘, the 60-year-old songstress switched gears to ‘Never Lost‘ from her 2022 album ‘Believe For It‘. At that juncture, she proved she hadn’t lost her ability to capture a crowd, as the over-15,000-strong audience joined in singing along.

Making a smooth transition to popular gospel chorus ‘Oh, the Blood of Jesus’, Winans was no longer performing at a gospel concert. She had transformed the event into a worship experience. Shouts of “Hallelujah” and “Jesus” could be heard from the crowd, where hands were lifted, and other audience members were entranced.

Ahead of her next selection, ‘More Than This‘, the eponymous song for her 2024 album, Winans explained the creative process and the inspiration behind the album. During the production process, her prayer to the Lord was, “I want to give you more than this. Help me give you more, help me to love you more…We need the Holy Spirit to teach us to love.”

Again, the performer and gospel minister had people lost in worship, singing ‘More Than This‘, before her segue into crowd favourites ‘Holy Forever‘ and ‘Believe For It‘. With the audience now lifted to new spiritual heights, Winans broke from her musical performance to remind the audience of the universality of and the power in praising God.

Asking the audience, “How many of you know that Jesus is coming back again?”, the 17-time Grammy award-winning artiste turned the spotlight on her saviour’s imminent return with her next selection, ‘Come Jesus, Come‘.

Following the song, Winans made an appeal to those who have not known Jesus as their saviour, declaring,  “I get excited about Jesus coming back…”If you choose Jesus, it will be the greatest decision you’ll make, and the greatest one for your life.”

At this juncture, she invited audience members, to commit their lives to the Lord by joining her in the prayer for salvation.

Winans completed her set with ‘Goodness of God‘, duringwhich she showed off her musical dexterity with vocal runs, and ‘That’s My King‘.

Emcee Ity Ellis could not contain his excitement, exclaiming, “Awesome! Amazing! Wonderful!”

“We want to thank God for the wonderful ministry of CeCe Winans,” he added.

Just before her performance, Mayor of Kingston Andrew Swaby presented Winans, in her official name, Priscilla Marie Love, with the key to the city. In the citation presented with the key, Mayor Swaby highlighted Kingston’s status as a designated Music City in the UNESCO network of creative cities.

For one audience member who did not want to be identified, she expressed that while Winans’ set was outstanding, it could have been longer. 

Other gospel artistes performing at the concert included Prince Saj, John-Mark Wignall, Kevin Downswell and Chevelle Franklyn. 

Another audience member commented on the acoustics in earlier performances being underwhelming, noting, “The volume could be much higher.”