KRISTY RAM­NAR­INE

kristy.ram­nar­ine@cnc3.co.tt

Mo­ti­va­tion­al speak­er Pas­tor Luke Quam­i­na be­lieves the up­com­ing CeCe Winans: More Than This Trinidad con­cert is ar­riv­ing at ex­act­ly the right mo­ment for a na­tion in need of hope.

As prepa­ra­tions in­ten­si­fy for the high­ly an­tic­i­pat­ed gospel event, T&T is grap­pling with a sec­ond state of emer­gency this year, de­clared amid “grave con­cerns” over a co­or­di­nat­ed threat from or­gan­ised crime gangs op­er­at­ing both in­side and out­side the coun­try’s pris­ons.

Quam­i­na, who min­is­ters at the First Church of the Open Bible in San Fer­nan­do—hosts of the event—sees the con­cert as a pow­er­ful op­por­tu­ni­ty for heal­ing and uni­ty.

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

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

Set for Ju­ly 31 at the Queen’s Park Oval, Port-of-Spain, the con­cert is near­ly sold out and ex­pect­ed to draw thou­sands. It will fea­ture the leg­endary gospel singer CeCe Winans, whose lat­est al­bum More Than This has topped the charts. Her ren­di­tion of Good­ness of God has res­onat­ed deeply with au­di­ences around the world.

Quam­i­na be­lieves mu­sic can be a cat­a­lyst for na­tion­al trans­for­ma­tion.

“Back in the day, Bob Mar­ley staged a con­cert in Ja­maica to say ‘One Love.’ It was a sig­nif­i­cant mo­ment dur­ing a pe­ri­od of po­lit­i­cal ten­sion and vi­o­lence,” he said, ref­er­enc­ing the his­toric One Love Peace Con­cert held on April 22, 1978, in Kingston, Ja­maica.

“We in Trinidad and To­ba­go have an op­por­tu­ni­ty through this event to make a dif­fer­ence.”

With state re­stric­tions in place, Quam­i­na said the or­gan­is­ing team is work­ing close­ly with au­thor­i­ties to en­sure every­thing goes smooth­ly.

“We’re hop­ing the State of Emer­gency does not af­fect the show in any way,” he said.

“But we un­der­stand the au­thor­i­ties are do­ing what they must. Safe­ty is our top pri­or­i­ty. I’m very pleased with the col­lab­o­ra­tion be­tween pub­lic and pri­vate sec­tors so far. Every­one is work­ing to­geth­er to en­sure the event is a suc­cess.”

Event part­ner Ricky Raghu­nanan and his team are cur­rent­ly fi­nal­is­ing venue prepa­ra­tions, with the stage al­ready un­der con­struc­tion.

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

“We’ve se­cured paid park­ing at Man­dela car park and free park­ing at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah to en­sure smooth ac­cess for pa­trons.”

He de­scribed the event as more than just a con­cert.

“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,” he said.

“But be­yond the stage, the re­al choir will be in the crowd—a sea of thou­sands singing in uni­son. It will feel like heav­en on earth.”

Winans, one of the most cel­e­brat­ed women in gospel mu­sic, re­cent­ly re­flect­ed on her icon­ic ca­reer dur­ing NPR’s Tiny Desk con­cert se­ries. She al­so co-host­ed the 40th Stel­lar Awards along­side her broth­er BeBe and was named Fe­male Artiste of the Year at the K-LOVE Fan Awards.

She will be joined on stage by her full band and a 12-mem­ber sup­port team. The night will al­so show­case the tal­ents of pop­u­lar Caribbean gospel artistes Gates Praise, Samuel Medas, and Jaron Nurse. A 160-voice lo­cal mass choir will fur­ther el­e­vate the wor­ship at­mos­phere.

As the na­tion nav­i­gates tur­bu­lent times, or­gan­is­ers are con­fi­dent the con­cert will de­liv­er a mes­sage of uni­ty, heal­ing, and un­wa­ver­ing faith.