The head of the organising committee for Friday’s More Than This concert featuring gospel megastar Ms CeCe Winans might have only been jesting when he said a friend told him, “It seems bigger than Vybz Kartel’s.” Accurate or not, the comparison of CeCe Winans, or Priscilla Marie Winans Love, and Adidja “Vybz Kartel” Palmer, on sacred dancehall ground — Jamaica — dramatically sums up the gospel event — that her concert on the East Lawn of King’s House was indeed a big deal.

The belated addition of Jamaica to the Caribbean leg of the world tour became a Caricom collaboration of sorts, according to the story told by Mr Eric Hosin, a senior deacon at Kingston Open Bible Church (KOBC) on Washington Boulevard, St Andrew.

Mr Hosin, the outgoing group president of Guardian, was the chairman of Come Alive Collective, the organisers of the CeCe Winans concert and the Jamaican contact with the First Church of the Open Bible in Trinidad and Tobago where he was persuaded to get the event to Jamaica.

On Sunday morning, two days after the concert rocked King’s House with an estimated 15,000 singing, dancing, swaying, praying, shouting gospel lovers and fans of Ms Winans, Mr Hosin briefly reported to his congregation.

He said the tour was not scheduled to stop in Jamaica but the collaboration between the two churches pulled off what has become, so far, the biggest gospel affair in Jamaica for 2025, featuring the 17-time American Grammy winner and an array of local gospel standouts.

The concert was timed for a day of special significance to Jamaica — Emancipation Day, August 1, which marks the official end of chattel slavery.

“This event is more than just a concert; it is a powerful platform for celebrating our hard-earned emancipation and fostering community spirit, hope, and positivity,” a post on the organiser’s Facebook page read.

One hundred per cent of the net proceeds would benefit Bustamante Hospital for Children’s Ophthalmology Unit and Yadel Home for Children, the organisers said.

Ms Winans last performed in Jamaica in 2018 at Gosplash 6 at Liguanea Club in New Kingston. She appears to have an affinity for Jamaica with her visits to perform here dating back as far as the late 1990s or early 2000s, when she was a guest of Kingston Church On The Rock in its heyday and relatively little known to the wider Jamaican audience.

Since then she has grown superlatively to be popularly regarded as one of, if not, the greatest female gospel artiste of her time, with sales of 22 million records; 17 Grammys; 31 Gospel Music Association (GMA) Dove Awards; 19 Stellar Awards; seven National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Image Awards; four Billboard Music Awards, along with many other accolades.

She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Music City Walk of Fame; is one of the inaugural inductees into the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame in Atlanta, Georgia; and is said to be the best-selling and most-awarded female gospel singer of all time, comparing only with the late great Ms Mahalia Jackson.

Even if Ms Winans’ concert did not supersede that of Vybz Kartel — the deejay of the moment — it did bring a rare moment of unity between the prime minister and the Opposition leader in the heat of the election campaign.

Kudos to the promoters.