My adventure in showcasing

Yesterday, at the CIA Summit, Christian Independent Alliance conference that is,We had this artist showcase when loads of independent artists got their 15 mins of fame amonst their peers. It was interesting. I was priviledged to get a slot too and had been looking forward to it but the course of things just hardly run smoothly !

Once I got to know that I would be singing. I got working on what songs to sing in 15minutes. Tricky, I sing a wide variety of styles. Some styles just bring out a particular message out better than others. So, I sing everything except rock and rap.
No offence to anybody, just saying what has worked for me.

Then I decided, that I was going to use one of the songs on my latest album that was a duet with the lovely singer Jaime Thietten. At first, she was going to be in the Bahamas singing on a cruise ship in the period of the conference, and then, she discovered that she might be able to make the showcase on Thursday. Yea. One week before the conference, she had to have an operation to have a cyst removed from her upper lip! Aw! and that for a singer !! So, it's prayers for healing. I was advised to prepare a plan B. never did, but held on secretly in hope.

And glory to God, she recovered well enough to sing with me. I did 3 songs. The people loved it. Ah the people: There were two stages for the showcase, One for bands, and the other for singers/songwriters. You can imagine where we were. The crowd grew and shrunk. The possibility to singing to a room with a couple of people was looming. Panic, panic. Not necessary. Meeting a few people the day before, who learnt I came all the way from the Nethetrlands to the US, and those who'd heard me before seemed to have made some want to be there when my turn came up, and the place was almost full when we sang. Glorious. And a plus, I had an old acquaintance, a classmate of my sisters from university who happens to be local in Nashville come up to be there to watch. That made my day.

We stand alone

On the way to Nashville. My bags are being packed . I'm ready to go. I hope to come back with an award. When you get nominated for an award and have a few other nominees,
It is always tricky to assume. It boils down to the subjective choice of a panel. Here's praying somebody loves my smiling face that launched a thousand ships ! To be nominated is already good, but hey, we need to get to the next level. Good to great. So help me God. I am quite looking forward too to the opportunity to showcase my music in Nashville before fellow artists and distinguished industry people in the audience.. That's life. Give it always your best shot.

Yesterday, I took the praise and worship for an evening service at my church and all
the 10 singers to be background vocals just did not show up for one reason or the other ! I just went on regardless with the keyboardist and bass guitarist. It also happened to be one of those nights when we couldn't get a drummer. The pastor even offered to sing along, but we politely declined. What do you know. It went well. Praise to his name. A team is great, but each member of the team must learn the art of being secure to stand on your own with God at the end of the day. The icing on the cake for me, was that I had decided to do a solo/special, which was not originally planned in the service schedule. So I got the track ready with the Sound engineer. Told the senior pastor about the song, which he said he agreed in principle. So before he preached, he asked me to sing the song. It the song made popular by Byron Cage (Gospel artist) called The presence of the Lord is here and my did God show up. The church was turned upside down, the congregation really got into it and you could see my senior pastor all beaming from ear to ear ! Guess what, at the end of the service, he asked for an encore !

The Happy Singers strike again

Yesterday Sunday morning was the 1st gig of the Happy singers youth gospel choir. It took place at a Salvation army church in The Hague, in the Netherlands. Many were really, really blessed and
were full of praises at the end of the service where we got to minister some 8 songs ! It could have well been a concert.

Yes. Who are the Happy singers. Just a group of kids brought together by our local Salvation Army church,
as a choir, for which I am choir director. Just over 8 years ago, I was approached by the youth leader of our local Salvation army church (in Leiden, Holland) through a dear brother in the praise team of my church. They had
had a bunch of kids from various dysfunctional homes. No dad, no mum , no parent, et. c and tried to make
something of their lives, with after school support, providing things for recreation and a kid's club.And as they aproached
12 and up, these became inadequate. Then someone came up with the idea, let's form a choir ! Sounds like Sister Act 2:-)
They asked the kids for a name, and settled on The happy singers .. Next, music ? They found a old friend of
one of the salvation Army officer's who was a gifted pianist, and also had the flexibility of playing latin music . the 60 + year old gentleman agreed to play (IIlvio Pietersz is his name by the way) but said that he wasn't used to working with kids. They needed a choir director. This is how I came into the picture.


To do or not to do ? I couldn't just take this. I asked for time to think and pray about it. I was then head of the music dept in my church, barely started my itinerant music ministry but eventually agreed under the conditions, that I couldn't raise a choir singing Dutch kidpraise songs. I was a gospel artist and will teah the kids gospel music. They agreed and the rest is as they say history. God's grace is indeed enough for us. I have seen kids grow up in the group to be confident individuals that will sing with the best of them. I even remember, a troublesome boy who had ADHD , that God really calmed down to make him find his place in society and relate better to people. In the last 8 years, some have grown up
and left, and many more join . Averaging about 20 these day. We've been to choir festivals , gospel festivals, all kinds of churches , weddings and someone re^cently wanted us to sing at their funeral ! (We decided against it for the little one's sake) and we have and invitation later this year to even sing at a youth correction center ! And have been a TV a few times here in the Netherlands. God is good and to HIM be all the glory. Even though, I never though about the usual what's in it for me, God has used it to open doors of personal ministry too. I almost always get asked to sing a song on my own as well , and get asked back, not to talk of my CD sales there as well.


May God help us to take opportunities at the right time. It will work out for our good.

Martin Adu announced as a finalist for the 2009 MOMENTUM AWARDS.

Martin Adu announced as a finalist for the 2009 MOMENTUM AWARDS.

Leading independent Christian organization to announce winners at their annual CIA Summit conference, March 28, 2009

Indieheaven.com/The Christian Independent Alliance, the leading organization for Christian independent musicians announces the finalists of the 2009 MOMENTUM AWARDS. The Momentum Awards, now in its 4th year, is the premier award recognition program for Christian independent artists. Previous award winners have seen opportunities for advancement in their music and mission because of the recognition the awards garner. Some have moved into the CCM Industry, while others have continued to see success as independent artists.

Indieheaven president, Keith Mohr states, "as the music industry continues to change and more and more artists are either staying independent or going back to their independent roots, it is important to recognize the pursuit of excellence in this growing industry. The basis for the Momentum Awards is not competition, but comrades applauding and encouraging one another to create momentum in their music missions. We teach indies that momentum is paramount to success as an independent artist."

Martin Adu is a music minister,an inspirational gospel music artist based in Leiden, the Netherlands at the Levensstroom Gemeente (Livingstream church).He started
singing at the age of 9 and has in the last 20 years a varied experience in leading choirs, conducting gospel music workshops and as guest soloist in different churches,
conferences and concerts in the Netherlands, Germany, England,France, Nigeria, Ireland, Canada and the USA,


Contact: Martin Adu, www.martinadu.com, +51 71 521 7597, info@martinadu.com
For more information about the CIA Summit and the MOMENTUM AWARDS, visit: http://www.ciasummit.com

About Indieheaven
Indieheaven.com is a Christian independent musicians resource agency dedicated to the advancement of independent Christian musicians and the independent Christian music scene. Indieheaven.com partners with its members to help them increase the scope of their music missions, providing: tools, distribution (100% going to the artist), mentoring, community, and other services. For more information, visit http://www.indieheaven.com

About Christian Independent Alliance
The CIAlliance is a staff department of Artists in Christian Testimony Intl, and is dedicated to Christian musicians, singers, bands, songwriters and others, who are impacting people with their music and message worldwide. For more information, visit http://www.cialliance.org

Nominated finalist in Indieheaven Momentum Awards Inspirational Artist of the year

This came as a surprise. I have been a member of the Indieheaven group which encourages independent non-label artists as myself . The roster really has some formidable artists, and this is an honour from God. I will be in Nashville at the end of the month for the Awards, and who knows, may come back across the Atlantic with one ! See press release here below . Glory to God



http://www.ciasummit.com/2008/03/30/2008-momentum-awards-winners-announced/