Philippa Hanna To Tour With Lionel Richie

Philippa Hanna is arguably British Christian music's best known female singer. But what may have escaped some fans' attention is that in recent times Philippa has started to attract more and more attention from the mainstream music industry. Her future may be even brighter as of October 26 Philippa will be kicking off a tour as support act for megastar Lionel Richie. So how has a singer moved from the rather insular confines of Christian music to the attention of the pop industry big time? Explained Philippa, "Things have been progressing steadily for me over the last couple of years, particularly since I started working with the Grammy Award winning songwriter and producer Eliot Kennedy. I've been able to do a few gigs with mainstream artists and at one of those a guy called Nathan, who works in the industry as a tour manager, saw me perform. He was very enthusiastic and one thing led to another and I was invited to do the Lionel Richie Tuskegee Tour."

Philippa will be singing six songs acoustically. She is already familiar with the challenges of being a support act working before an audience where the majority of the people have never heard of you. "I'm aware of the support act dynamic," she said. "I've already done gigs with Laura White (of X Factor fame) and Graham Kendrick. I know that my role is to support Lionel and help people get in a positive frame of mind."

Although Philippa's final set list is still to be finalised, one song she will be singing will be "I Am Amazing", the singer's powerful antidote to the fake tan, crash diet, skin deep beauty obsessions of our modern world. "I am really looking forward to singing that song to the audience," she commented. "We're going to be offering the song as a free download so that people who hear it can text a number we'll be giving them and get it. It's an important message that people need to hear - that we are wonderfully and amazingly made by God."

Philippa concluded our interview by reminiscing about her father, "When I was growing up I remember my dad singing 'Three Times A Lady' around the house. Now I'm touring with the great singer who recorded that song. God moves in mysterious ways!"

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