In the 1960's, when she was marching against the Vietnam War, registering voters and even thrown in jail, singer Judy Collins found singing "Amazing Grace" had a profound effect on her audiences.
What You Need To Know:
- Grammy Winning Singer Judy Collins is releasing a Global Virtual Choir rendition of "Amazing Grace."
- This is the 50th anniversary of the rendition she released in 1970. The money raised will go to the WHO's COVID relief fund.
- Collins says it was a comforting song during the Vietnam War and the civil unrest of the 1960s and the song we need now.
- In the 1960's, she had marched, registered people to vote and even went to jail and when she didn't know what else to do, she released “Amazing Grace.”
Now 50 years later, while isolating in her Manhattan apartment, she has released a new rendition, joined by a thousand singers in a Global Virtual Choir. A show of solidarity in this unprecedented time, all the money raised will go to the World Health Organization.
She first released “Amazing Grace” in 1970, a version she recorded with a group of friends at Saint Paul's Chapel at Columbia University. She says it's also the song we need right now.
The song was written in the late 1700's by John Newton , a slave ship captain who changed his life and became a model of spiritual transformation.
"John Newton wrote that in 1772 when he decided to change his life from being a slave ship captain to being a decent human being. The first thing he did was write Amazing Grace. That's pretty profound,” said Collins, a Grammy Award Winning Singer and Songwriter.
"Then he devoted his life to changing the laws about slavery, in fact he was an influential person in those days and helped William Wilberforce to stay courageous enough to keep fighting parliament to pass a bill against the slave trade and the slave ships,” she said.
Collins says this song helps us get through difficult times with love, music and amazing grace.