EXCLUSIVE! CeCe Winans Brings Her Live Believe For It “Worship Party” To Sacramento October 26
The gospel music icon preps for Sacramento stop during her first national tour in over a decade.
A few years ago, the incomparable CeCe Winans ministered to a standing-room-only crowd in Modesto. It was a night I’ll never forget.
On the drive back to Sacramento, I wondered why the gospel legend had never released a live album, and hoped that one day she’d bless Sacramento with a live show. Soon thereafter, the pandemic hit, and I wondered whether God would answer either prayer.
As Winans and others of her ilk like to say, He may not come when you want Him, but He’s always on time. After having released her live “Believe For It” album in 2021, CeCe’s bringing her Believe For It tour to Sacramento on October 26.
I recently spoke with Winans by phone, between sold-out tour stops. The icon told me that she can’t wait to get to Sac Town.
“I’ll get a chance to see people in Sacramento who have followed us and been a blessing to us for years,” Winans said of the upcoming performance. “For each of the shows so far, everyone has shown up ready to participate. Each night has been a worship party!”
“‘Believe For It’ is a live record, but to see the record come alive has been pretty spectacular. Just hearing people sing the songs, and weep, and praise God…it’s been an awesome experience. It shows the goodness and faithfulness of God.”
Winans’ “Believe For It” album includes “Fire,” “Never Lost,” “No Greater” and the title track. During COVID-19’s darkest days, Winans’ latest album was a beacon…and continues to inspire, while racking up three Grammy awards.
I asked Winans what those of us who have followed her for decades can expect during the new tour. It’s been 40 years, after all, since she and one of her brothers went from Detroit to the international stage, integrating the PTL Singers before taking the recording industry by storm as they took gospel music to a whole new level.
“All I can say is it gets better,” Winans reflected. “People have allowed my music to be the soundtrack of their lives. For us to come back together, it makes it greater than it was 40 years ago. And then, I believe that given the times we’re living in, I think we all understand how important and how crucial it is to have a relationship with God, and also how important it is to come together and worship with other believers, in all of the turmoil that we find ourselves in.”
“Come to the show expecting it to be better than what you can imagine,” Winans continued, with a timbre that probably comes easily to the former pastor. “When the presence of God shows up, miracles happen! And I believe it’s happening! Someone texted me the other day and said the show wasn’t a concert, but an encounter. That’s what I was praying for, that each person would have an encounter with the love of God.”
While Winans has written a handful of great songs, she’s not known as a singer-songwriter, and largely has to rely on others to write the songs that she brilliantly interprets. I asked her how she knows when she’s found an “Alabaster Box” or a “Goodness Of God,” which are two other highlights of the new album and are almost guaranteed to be on the set list for the Sacramento show.
“When I hear songs like those, or “It Wasn’t Easy,” or “Comforter,” or “For Always,” my heart just melts,” Winans said. “Years ago, now, I was in church and my worship team started singing ‘Goodness Of God.’ I’d never heard it, and when the singer got to the part ‘All my life, You have been faithful,’ I just began to weep. That is my testimony. We weren’t even lined up to do a live record yet, but I knew I had to sing that song! So it grabs me like that. When it hits my heart, then it’s easy for me to interpret it to other people.”
“I’ve been a firm believer, for years, that if it comes from the heart, it’s going to touch hearts,” Winans continued. “That’s what gospel music is all about. It’s not about entertaining. Yeah, we want you to enjoy it, but the overall goal is for the heart to be touched. ‘Goodness Of God’ touches the heart of everyone who hears it. I don’t care where you come from. I don’t care what your religion is, or what you think you believe. We all know that God’s been good to us, and that He’s faithful.”
Winans’ “Believe For It” album isn’t just touching hearts here in the United States. The title track has just been re-recorded by Winans with Brazilian singer Gabriela Rocha. I wondered whether that was a harbinger of things to come: might Winans take her Believe For It tour overseas?
“I don’t know,” Winans pondered, with a laugh that’s contagious. “I didn’t know I would be doing this! This was not my plan! I tell everybody that I’m a grandmom now, and I love being with my grandson. So when they started talking about touring, I was like ‘Oh, praise the Lord [but] I don’t know.’”
“But I had to listen to the voice,” Winans said. “I’ve ignored that voice before, and when I ignored it, I payed for it! I understand the importance of never ignoring the voice of God. He is showing me that this is what He wanted me to do. We’ll see what God says.”
“They wanted me to do a lot more shows, but I’m getting back in shape vocally,” the legend added. “I’m trying to get stronger, because it’s been a long time since I’ve toured like this, and it takes a lot out of you, every night. We’re gonna do more shows in the spring, and go to a lot of places that we could’t make it to this time around, and then we’ll see if we’ll do anything internationally.”
In the meantime, let’s be thankful for Winans’ stateside shows, and specifically, October 26 in Sacramento. See you there for Winans’ “worship party!”
Tickets for CeCe’s October 26 performance in Sacramento, and all of her upcoming tour dates, are available at cecewinans.com/events.
