We Speak Entertainment
JOHN P. KEE DEBUTS AT #1 WITH NEW ALBUM I MADE IT OUT
AVAILABLE IN STORES AND ONLINE NOW
Album Boasts Incredible Features by Zacardi Cortez, Chrystal Rucker,Isaiah Templeton, Micah Stampley, PJ Morton and More
(NASHVILLE, TN) – September 24, 2019 – Entertainment One celebrates the release of GRAMMY-nominated gospel music pioneer and living legend John P. Kee’s latest full-length release, I Made It Out. Kee’s new album I Made It Out debuts at #1 on Billboard’s Top Gospel Chart and #1 on Billboard’s Current Gospel Albums Chart. Winning many accolades including a Billboard Music Award, a Soul Train Award and numerous Stellar Awards, Kee’s songwriting and vocals have been hailed by critics throughout his career – often by mainstream artists across various genres of music. He is currently enjoying the success of his current single and album title track, “I Made It Out (feat. Zacardi Cortez),” sitting in Billboard Gospel Airplay’s top-ten chart.
I Made It Out features Kee’s signature vocals on standout tracks, including “He Careth For You,” an encouraging song for those dealing with depression, “One God” featuring powerhouse vocalist Chrystal Rucker, and the sure-to-be fan favorite “One Yes Away” with Isaiah Templeton and Samoht. The album also features a remake of Kee’s catalog hidden gem “Colorblind” with lead vocals by PJ Morton.
After forming a community choir in Charlotte known as the New Life Community Choir (“NLCC”) in the ‘80s, Kee founded the Victory in Praise Music and Arts Seminar Mass Choir (“V.I.P”) in 1990. Known as “The Prince of Gospel Music,” and having been active for more than 20 years in the music field, Kee is primarily known both for his signature, soulful, husky voice and for mixing traditional gospel with modern contemporary gospel. Over the years, Kee’s music ministry has birthed his best-known songs, including “Jesus is Real,” “Standing In the Need,” “Stand” and 2012’s crossover smash hit “Life & Favor.” In 2005, Kee was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame.
Currently, the Charlotte, NC native serves as the Senior Pastor of New Life Fellowship Center. Kee’s latest effort I Made It is available in stores and online now. For more information on John P. Kee visit EntertainmentOne.com and follow John P. Kee on social media using the handle @KeetWit.
We Speak Entertainment
IRENE MICHAELS JOINS THE RECORDING ACADEMY — AND WHAT THAT VOTE ACTUALLY MEANS
Awards nominations tell an audience an artist’s work has been noticed. Recording Academy Voting Membership tells a different story: that the artist has been recognized as a peer within the industry itself. Irene Michaels was recently named a Voting Member of the Recording Academy — the organization behind the Grammy Awards — and the distinction carries weight well beyond a title on a bio page.
Voting Membership isn’t handed out casually. It’s reserved for performers, songwriters, producers, engineers, and other creators actively working in the recording industry, and it comes with real influence: Voting Members are the people who ultimately determine Grammy nominees and winners each year. For an artist to be recognized at that level is, in effect, the industry saying her work belongs in the same conversation as the artists and professionals shaping the awards themselves.
That’s a meaningful marker for Michaels’ ongoing music career, which has moved from EPs and singles to Josie Music Award recognition and now into this kind of institutional standing. It reframes her not just as an artist building a catalog, but as a working member of the community that evaluates and honors that catalog industry-wide — someone whose judgment on music now carries an official vote.
It also adds context to everything else happening in her 2026: a triple nomination at the 12th Annual Josie Music Awards, an EP in Golden that’s earning recognition on its own merits, and a career that has spent the last several years steadily building credibility as a serious recording artist rather than a novelty comeback story. Recording Academy membership doesn’t arrive for artists still proving themselves — it arrives for artists the industry has already decided are part of it.
For Irene Michaels, whose career has spanned modeling, acting, publishing, and now music across multiple decades, the Recording Academy recognition is less a single headline than another data point in a larger pattern: an artist whose reinvention keeps being met, at every stage, with the industry taking her seriously.
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