Christian singers gather to write song for charity

How many songwriters does it take to write a hit? A group of big names from the Christian recording industry is hoping it’s a lucky 13.

Michael W. Smith, Steven Curtis Chapman, Chris Tomlin and others are scheduled to gather for a retreat Jan. 7-11 in Perthshire, Scotland, with a plan to collectively write 10 to 12 songs for charity. Any money the tunes generate is designated to help the poor for as long as the songs are around.

“All those names on the list at some stage have written with each other over the last five years,” says Martin Smith, lead singer for the British-based group Delirious?.

“We thought, ‘Hey, let’s all get together for a week and see what we can all do together on a creative level, and why don’t we give the songs away before they’re written?’ “

The 37-year-old Smith is organizing the retreat. He says the project has drawn some attention from the secular music world, and he would welcome their involvement, too.

“It has a ‘We Are The World’ vibe,” he says, referring to the star-studded 1985 effort to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia.

All proceeds from the songs will be donated directly to the poor. Half will go to the songwriters’ charity of choice, and the other half to a yet-to-be-determined charitable program agreed on by all the writers.

Besides Martin Smith, Michael W. Smith, Curtis Chapman and Tomlin, participating songwriters include Darlene Zschech, Matt and Beth Redman, Tim Hughes, Paul Baloche, Israel Houghton, Graham Kendrick, Andy Park and Stu Garrard.

Among them, they’ve sold at least 42 million albums and had 82 No. 1 songs on the Christian music charts.

The plan is to break into small groups of three and see what happens over the five days.

“We’ve all tried to sit down and write a hit and failed. The ones that get out are the ones you never expect to,” Martin Smith says. “I think we’ll just have to get in there and see what comes of it.”

The music will likely be recorded by the artists for a compilation CD, but beyond that, Smith says, they could be recorded by other artists or used in other formats. The only certainty is that for as long as the songs survive, the money they make will help the poor.

“At the end of the day, it’s people giving up a week of their time and giving their songs away,” he says. “I think it’s amazing that we all agreed to do that.”