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RESPECTED: Karen Gibson founded The Kingdom Choir over 20 years ago

GUESTS AT next week’s royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are set to experience the power of gospel music when The Kingdom Choir performs during the marriage ceremony.

The choir, directed by Karen Gibson who founded it over 20 years ago, announced details of this historic royal singing engagement on social media, saying “We are extremely excited to be taking part in such a historic moment, and know that it is one that we will always treasure.

“We’d like to take this opportunity to wish the couple all the very best for their coming union and thank them once again for their kind invitation.”

No one knows what songs the choir will sing on the Royal couple’s big day, but Gibson has drafted some talented gospel artists such as The Voice contestant Wayne Ellington, singer Tracey Campbell and fellow director Mark De-Lisser to ensure that the choir sounds absolutely brilliant on its big day.

To ensure that the choir looks good it will be styled by fashion designer Jeanette Young, pictured.

The black Christian community is undeniably proud of this development in The Kingdom Choir’s ministry as it’s the first time gospel music will be per- formed at a royal wedding.

Gibson, an award-winning artist, is one of the UK’s most respected female choir directors. Her ability for bringing singers together to make a joyful choir sound has taken her to countries such as Japan, Latvia, Poland, America, Norway and Nigeria. Gibson also works with choirs across the UK, and is renowned for the gospel choir workshops she holds in schools.

In recent years, Gibson has been featured on TV programmes about choral singing, including BBC2’s The Naked Choir, as a judge.

In 2014, she directed Lewes Sings Gospel to victory in the BBC Songs of Praise Gospel Choir of the Year competition, and just recently Gibson and members of her choir were featured on hit BBC series The Midwife.

She’s also directed choirs that have performed in front of dignitaries like the Queen during the Royal Jubilee Procession in 2002, Nelson Mandela and Pope John Paul II, who visited the UK in 2010.

It’s telling that the performers at the royal wedding come from a diverse range of cultural backgrounds, but one thing is for sure, if the general public didn’t know about The Kingdom Choir before, they definitely will when the marriage ceremony is broadcast across the world.

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