Mike Rimmer went to Holland and talked to the director of GOSPEL BOULEVARD, Andre Bijleveld.

Gospel Boulevard

Mike: A Dutch gospel choir seems a bit of a strange idea. Is gospel music popular in Holland?

Andre: After the football game, singing in a choir is the most popular thing to do in Holland here. I think it's about 1 million people who sing in different kinds of choirs, not all gospel choirs. Singing is very popular in Holland, there is very much gospel choirs, youth choirs in churches and so on. So there are very many people who sing gospel music.

Mike: But it still seems strange to me to see white people singing music that comes from the black church.

Andre: That is strange. But the music is so inspiring and the whole thing with the energy, praising the Lord and all that kind of thing, that it's very nice to try as white people, to do that kind of thing.

Mike: You've done a cover version of the song "Shackles (Praise You)". Can you remember when you first heard the song?

Andre: Yeah, I was playing at the Amsterdam Arena last year because I also play in a praise band, at a big festival in the arena and Mary Mary came for that one song. So I saw it there for the first time. My immediate reaction was, it's unbelievable, two very small women but HUGE voices! The whole 50,000 crowd went crazy. It was a very big hit here in Holland. When we recorded the album, we thought it would be fine also because we want to share the music with non-Christian people. We put some songs on there that they would then know. So that was one of them.

Mike: Were you brought up in a Christian household?

Andre: Yes. My father is a Baptist preacher, so I was born in church practically. From a very young age I knew I wanted to make music and praise the Lord. I am very lucky because we have a very small country and when you are a professional and you have a family and children, it's hard to live as an artist. It's even harder though when you're a Christian artist. So I feel very privileged to be able to get a living from the things that I do."