After nearly 20 years together, Brandon Camphor & One Way have won their first Stellar Award. The urban inspirational quartet, led by Brandon Camphor and including Fred Cleveland, Angela Jones, and Julia McMillan Lamur, was ceremoniously named Traditional Duo/Chorus Group of the Year at the commemorative 40th Anniversary festivities hosted by the Stellar Awards Gospel Music Academy this past weekend in Nashville, TN.
During their acceptance speech, Camphor stated, “This moment is special because of what this awards represents for us. After nearly 20 years in ministry together this award represents patience, perseverance, faith and most of all PROMISE. A word God never fails to live up to!”
The nomination, and subsequent win, serves as a providential precursor to brand new music from the group. Two new singles, the newly available “After While,” and the forthcoming “God of Mine,” will both appear on their new album, HOPE LIVES – their first full-length offering since 2009’s Regeneration. “After While” finds Camphor reconciling dismal current events with a bold confidence in Christ, while “God of Mine” joins the group with their urban contemporary, Jor’Dan Armstrong, for a rhythmic affirmation of faith and assurance. The former is currently ascending both the Billboard® and MediaBase® radio charts, in rotation at various stations and formats across the country, while the group teases a “soon” release of the latter and album.
In the group’s nearly two-decade career, the foursome has made a name for themselves with four Billboard®Top 30 singles (“You Are God,” “I Choose You,” “His Name,” and “God of Mercy”), and a holiday-themed EP (Christmas Joy, 2020), all that have defined their contemporary sound and solidified the group as a formidable collective voice in the current Christian music landscape. Hope Lives promises to continue this legacy.
Hope Lives is a sleek and stunning compilation of songs intended to provide divine hope in a time replete, for many, with fear, doubt, and despair. In addition to “After While” and “God of Mine,” the full-length, 14-track, body of work includes “Forever,” an infectious and upbeat reminder of God’s constant presence and accessibility for all who seek Him, as well as “God of Mercy,” a heartfelt acknowledgement of God’s unwavering compassion. Also included are One Way’s compelling renditions of two popular and beloved songs, spanning audiences and generations. “Goodness of God,” which in recent years has become a faithful favorite for both Christian and Gospel listeners, is reimagined here with the group’s impenetrable and impassioned harmonies. Equally as familiar, and establishing the album’s through line of hope as the opening track, is “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” the hymn poignantly penned by James Weldon Johnson, and officially declared the Black National Anthem by the NAACP over a century ago during a similarly difficult time in our nation’s history.
About Hope Lives, Camphor says, “The songs on this album became the soundtrack to my journey of rediscovering hope. Each lyric carries a piece of that healing. My prayer is that they meet others in their darkest moments and lead them to the unending, life-changing hope found in truly knowing Jesus.”