At Christmas in 2024, the ‘Great Gospel Artists’ will present the European tour of American ensemble The Mississippi Mass Choir: "The Gospel Legend Tour".
The Mississippi Mass Choir was founded in 1988 by Frank Williams, who was one of the acclaimed Jackson Southernaires and executive director of the gospel division of Malaco Records. Its first recording was made on 28 October of that year at the Jackson Municipal Auditorium. In the spring of 1989, after just five weeks on the market, the record topped the Billboard gospel chart and also crowned the Cash Box chart.
That same year, the Mississippi Mass Choir was voted the best choir and new artist of the year at the James Cleveland convention in New Orleans. It was also acknowledged at the Stellar Awards under the categories of Best Choir, Best Recording, Best New Artist and Best Gospel Video. This was the perfect take-off for a choir that would end up making the world its stage, touring non-stop through the United States, Japan, Latin America and Europe, in addition to being the first gospel group to perform at the Acropolis of Athens and the first to sing for Pope John Paul II at his summer residence. The choir's first concert in Spain took place in 1997 at the Maestranza Theatre in Seville. Its tour in the summer of 2001 met with great success at the Castillo de Peralada Festival, and its tour in 2002 was repeated for 3,700 spectators at the Kursaal Cultural Centre in San Sebastián. The group also gave sold-out performances at the Fernán Gómez Theatre in Madrid and the Palau de la Música in Barcelona.
The European ensemble's tour in 2010 included a concert before 20,000 spectators in Santa Cruz de Tenerife on Christmas evening. For the first time in musical history in Europe, an African-American choir sang gospel with the Sinfónica de Tenerife under the direction of conductor Lu Jia.
In 2013, the Mississippi Mass Choir celebrated its 25 years of history with the recording of its tenth album titled Declaration of Independence. The Spanish group's tour took it to 13 cities, and its 14 tours were acclaimed by the public and critics making it a Spanish Christmas classic that all gospel fans are eagerly awaiting.