Female Group Virtue Climbs Gospel Charts With Hit Single 'You Are'
The Grammy, Dove and Stellar Award-nominated group Virtue continues to gain traction in the gospel music industry with the song "You Are" which landed at Billboard's No. 25 this week.
After a 10-year hiatus, Virtue is back on gospel radio stations across the U.S. with "You Are." In fact, the song jumped nine spots and cracked the Top 30 landing at No. 25 with a +80 spin trend on the Nielsen BDS Gospel Airplay chart this week.
"Our single 'You Are' from the Testimony Reloaded album is top 25, buy it online today," Virtue, which is comprised of sisters Ebony Holland, Karima Kibble and Heather Martin, wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.
"You Are" is the latest on a long list of the group's favorites, including "Put Your War Clothes On" and "Great Is Thy Faithfulness," among many others.
Lyrics to "You Are" include: "It's like I'm swimming in the ocean but no air to breathe and no one to rescue me / that's every second without you, I just can't do this without you / So when the world says yes Lord I'll say no, and when there's trouble all around me I know I have some place to go."
On the heels of the chart success, Virtue will perform "You Are" this Friday, Feb. 20, on The Word Network's "Rejoice in the Word" program. The cable channel program will be hosted by Bishop George Bloomer.
Virtue's "You Are" comes off of their latest album TESTIMONY: RELOADED, which is a re-release of their 1996 Grammy-nominated album Testimony. The re-release also features a new Fred Jerkins-produced track "You Deserve."
"We are excited about all of our music, but the inspiration behind our new album comes from us being away for so long; and all the things that happened in our lives," Virtue told Sister 2 Sister magazine. "Life happened in a huge way for us. In the time we were away we all became mothers, one of us experienced divorce, and we experienced three deaths. We lost a sister, our father, and our grandmother. Our true inspiration came from real- life experiences that have touched us and changed us in ways that we would never have expressed before. So, we grew up and you can hear it lyrically and vocally."
Listen to "You Are" on YouTube below.