VaShawn Mitchell
Created 4 This

   Six-time Stellar Award-winner and GRAMMY® Award-nominated recording artist VaShawn Mitchell soared to the top of the charts in 2010 with his mega-hit single “Nobody Greater,” from his top-selling, award-winning album Triumphant.  In 2011, Mitchell received 11 Stellar Award nominations, the most nominations received by an artist that year.  Billboard magazine declared “Nobody Greater” the #1 Most Played Gospel Song of 2011.
  VaShawn was named Billboard’s #1 Gospel Radio Artist of 2011 and Triumphant was among the Top 5 Gospel Albums of 2011.   The single held the #1 position for nine consecutive weeks on Billboard’s Hot Gospel Songs chart and crossed-over to the Urban Contemporary Adult charts.  Mitchell also received two GRAMMY® and two GMA Dove Award nominations for both the album and single.

  Now the acclaimed singer-songwriter is back with a new project, Created 4 This, which has spent the last 28 weeks on Billboard's charts with the current hit from it, Turning Around For Me, resting at its highest position of #7.

See VaShawn Mitchell's "Turning Around For Me" live video - Click Here

  Created 4 This picks up where Triumphant left off.  This project is a body of music that features Mitchell’s signature style: contemporary themes with a traditional Gospel vibe. The praise and worship music on the CD is encouraging, inspiring, and uplifting. 

  “I wanted to build on ‘Nobody Greater’ and Triumphant to create a new compilation of music to empower and equip people in this economy to understand why we are here and what we are created for,” says Mitchell. “The whole message of the album is that we still have hope, that we shall overcome and be victorious, and that God will be there to sustain us in this next phase of our lives.”

  Created 4 This is produced through a partnership between EMI Gospel and Mitchell’s production company, V-MAN Entertainment. The album was recorded live at the Thornton High School Auditorium in Mitchell’s home town of Harvey, IL, a suburb of Chicago. Produced by VaShawn Mitchell, Calvin Rogers, and Phillip Feaster, it features 11 songs that range from high octane praise to contemplative worship, and showcases Mitchell’s acclaimed songwriting—he wrote or co-wrote most of the songs on the album—and compelling vocal style.

  A deluxe edition of the project, which was released at the same time, contains two bonus songs on the CD and a DVD that features videos of live performances and behind-the-scenes footage of Mitchell gearing up for the live recording session and reflecting on growing up in the Chicago area.

  A compelling performer with cross-over appeal, Mitchell has performed around the country and in Switzerland, Germany, Italy, England, as well as many of the Caribbean Islands.  He was featured in gar Mommas, a movie based on the popular gospel play of the same name, which premiered on the Gospel Music Channel in January, 2012. The stellar cast was led by Vanessa Williams and Terri J. Vaughn, and also featured Rachel True, Lamman Rucker, and Tommy Ford.

Before taking center stage as a performer with Triumphant, Mitchell, a worship leader and celebrated songwriter, penned hits for a number of Gospel’s most well-known voices, including Smokie Norful, Vanessa Bell Armstrong, and Bishop Paul Morton. Throughout the years, he has written several top-selling choir recordings and spawned such memorable hits as “My Worship Is For Real” and “Trouble Don’t Last.”

He recently started the Norman Youth and Arts Foundation, named in memory of his grandfather. As their first projects, they sponsored summer youth camps for the arts in the Chicago area because arts programs have been eliminated from so many schools and school districts there. Mitchell was recently honored by his hometown when they named the street where he grew up “VaShawn Mitchell Street.”  It was an experience that he describes as “humbling and encouraging,” and one that offered him another opportunity to inspire young people to work hard and achieve their goals.  He believes that he is a role model for young people, and that it is part of his calling.  It’s a role that is both proud and happy to take on.

VaShawn Mitchell will be in metro Atlanta on February 7 as part of the United As One Tour at  Word of Faith Family Cathedral in Austell.
Appearing at the event will be James Fortune & FIYA, Kierra Kiki Sheard and Zacardi Cortez.
For more information, call 770-874-8400 or visit their website www.woffamily.org

The Gospel Guru Talks To VaShawn Mitchell

  Six-time Stellar Award winner and Grammy nominated recording artist VaShawn Mitchell is back with a brand-new LP, “Created 4 This.” Indeed, the follow-up to his 2010 LP “Triumphant.” The LP, which is preceded by the project’s lead single “Turning Around For Me.”

  The Gospel Guru caught up with Mitchell to discuss his latest album, collaborating with Fantasia, and much more. Get into the interview below…

 Q: Describe Vashawn Mitchell in three words.
  A: Praiser. Songwriter. Worshipper.

  Q: What was your inspiration for “Created 4 This”?
  A: Man, you know I just believe that I can not duplicate what God did with “Nobody Greater” but what I can do is do it off of the sound and that is…you know a lot of people regardless of the denomination, culture, background, in church, out of church were singing “Nobody Greater“ because they were going through some pretty tough times and I believe the song kind of spoke to where people were.
  So after recession, when things are coming together this sound, this cd, these songs are kinda to empower and encourage people to understand who they are and what they’re created to do. So it’s a cd full of songs that will empower and encourage through praise, through worship, through slow songs, through fast songs…every song will encourage a person regardless of where they are in life that they can do and were created for this from birth.

  Q: What is a standout or favorite song for you on the new album?
  A: My favorite track is the song “Greatest Man”. Me and Israel recorded it together… It was really by Steven McCoy out of Baltimore, Maryland and he let me change a few words to it. When I heard the songs I told him that this song would definitely be a staple in Praise & Worship, it is a timely song. It’s one of those songs that when you first hear it, even if you don’t know it you think you know it. So that would have to be my favorite, it kinda births different emotions, it feels good. It’s just about Jesus being the greatest man.

  Q: It’s no secret that “Nobody Greater” was one of the biggest songs of 2011, do you feel any pressure with your follow-up to “Triumphant” and “Nobody Greater”?
  A:  Man, of course…I did feel pressure. Now I think I’m cool because I know that I did what God said to do. And that’s more important; people try to make me feel pressure. At first I was nervous and trying to write songs just like “Nobody Greater” and then I tried to get people to send me songs and they didn’t sound right. But when I sat down and birthed the concept for “Created 4 This” and the songs came together and the sound was birthed. I’m very content because I did what God said do, and when you do that I believe God blows on it…It may not become that “Nobody Greater” song that everybody wants but it will become the next sound, the next phase, and the next phase of my music and my ministry.

  Q: How did your collaboration with Fantasia come about?
   A: I was sitting down and thinking about who I wanted to collab with…I really wanted this record not to be in the box, I wanted to come out the box. I contacted Fantasia and her mom, and asked them if they would do a song with me and they were really excited. I was like “whoa this might work” so I contacted them and realized that we have a lot of things in common.
   Her mom was such a great prayer warrior, she prayed for us and it just became a relationship. Now, we’re family. I believe God does everything for a reason. It happened just by me contacting them, but our spirits connected so quickly. It was a match that was predestined to happen.

  Q: Aside from being an artist, you’re an entrepreneur. At the top of the year you announced the signing of your artist to your label-imprint. How was it taking on that role?  A: I have to say that, as “Vashawn Mitchell” has developed the last few years, I consider myself a business. Part of that is a worshipper, part of that is a singer-songwriter, another part of that is what we do as a business has to make sense. A lot of people don’t know I’m a partner also in my own records with EMI. V Man Entertainment pays for the records, EMI markets and distributes them and we take partnership in the deal where my company gets a royalty off of the total deal. So it’s nothing new to me to sit in marketing meetings, and on marketing calls, and develop press plans for artists.
  It’s even a greater accomplishment when you can do it for someone else and not feel some type of way and just be excited for someone else. I believe in this next season, this next generation of music in general we’re gonna have to reach out and teach others so they won’t make the same mistakes that we made.
  A lot of people think I just showed up but I’ve been doing this for about 15 years now, “Triumphant” was my 6^th cd personally. And I’ve produced about 4 cd’s with Bishop Trotter before that. It’s a process of accomplishments and failures, and some of those failures I don’t want artists like Anthony Brown, Steve McCoy, Tasha Cobbs, or people that I connect with to make. Apart of me being an entrepreneur is definitely sharing what I know with the artists, but also sitting in on those marketing calls and seeing what works and what doesn’t work…giving my ideas and input. But also learning all I can about the industry I want to be a part of and not just singing and going home.

  Q: How does Vashwn Mitchell define or determine success?
  A: Man, I determine success by the return. To me, not a financial return…but the return of hundreds and thousands of people being blessed by the ministry that you have put out. Success is nothing I could have done, it’s really based upon knowing that God blew upon Vashawn Mitchell in this season to put out such a big sound that had a life of its own. I believe I became successful as an artist, as a singer, as an entrepreneur not because of anything I did but because God decided that I was the vehicle that he would use to birth such a huge sound in this season.

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