The gospel music legend John P. Kee closed the 41st anniversary Stellar Gospel Music Awards program (which aired on the BET cable TV network from Charlotte, NC’s Spectrum Center) with an emotional, soul-stirring medley of some of his biggest, most iconic church classics such as “Show Up,” “Standing in the Need of Prayer,” “Clap Your Hands” and “Oh How Wonderous.” On the finale, Kee traded vocals with his raspy-voiced mentee Zacardi Cortez. The audience was standing on its collective feet and cheering like they were at a football team. As Kee was preparing to leave the stage, show host Kirk Franklin ran over to him and whispered that Kee couldn’t leave the stage without performing his biggest hit of all, “Jesus is Real.”
Kee laughed and quickly called out to the show’s music director Daniel Moore and asked if the seasoned house band (who have worked with a who’s who such as Mariah Carey and CeCe Winans) knew the song. They did indeed, so on that cue, Kee leaned into his keyboard and extended the medley with a joyous exhalation of “Jesus is Real.” The performance went over so well that Kee has recreated that special moment with “Stellar Medley (Featuring Zacardi Cortez)” (Kee Music Group / Tyscot Records) which is now available for pre-order and will officially release on all digital music platforms on September 18, 2026.
Pre-Order Link HERE
The track will anchor the gold-selling, Grammy® award nominated crown prince of gospel music’s forthcoming album, Throwback: An Evening with John P. Kee, Pt. 2 (Kee Music Group / Tyscot Records), the final and second half of Kee’s live concert retrospective of his greatest hits, Throwback: An Evening with John P. Kee, Pt. 1 (Kee Music Group / Tyscot Records). The latter earned Kee seven Stellar Award nominations. The projected earned two of them in the categories of Traditional Male Artist of the Year and Traditional Choir of the Year. Kee recently earned his first Mediabase Gospel Airplay chart No. 1 single in years for his festive track, “Church Medley.”
