Last year Hayden Billingy romped home with the Nigerian based House of Daniel Gospel Music Award top honours as the Best Outstanding International Gospel Artiste of the Year.
When he returns home, fingers crossed, he just might bring back the Regional Artiste of the Year Award from Trinidad and Tobago’s Gospel Music Awards gala event.
The GMATT, as it is known, would be hosted in Port of Spain, on Sunday, and also features other notable gospel acts from across the region as nominees in the same category. They are Guyanese Samuel Medas and Jamaicans Christopher Gayle, Jermaine Edwards and Dweeno.
The song that is propelling the International Award winning Hayden Billingy into the industry spotlight is an afro-fusion praise anthem dubbed ‘Feel Him in My Soul.’ It was produced by Foxfuse and is available for streaming and purchase across all major digital platforms. The accompanying music video is also offered for viewing on Youtube.com.
The Orange Hill born and raised singer/songwriter was expressly overjoyed when ANN caught up with him amidst travel preparations.
“ I’m grateful for those who voted for me and I look forward to fly the Vincentian flag high as I proudly represent my country,” he said.
The awards, he explained, are important to him not only because of the promotional spill offs that tend to accrue. They also act as a means “to solidify my presence as a Gospel artiste and also to make the name of Jesus glorious.”
Billingy, who also holds the SVGAMP Best Gospel Single of 2017 award, is currently polishing up two more singles that are set to drop sometime soon. As multi talented as he is, there’s more. His latest book, said to be of an inspirational style, is also due to be released within the month.
Then, in May, “after GMATT is the Gospel HipHop Awards in Atlanta where I was nominated for Best Male Gospel Reggae Artiste of the year,” he said.
To know Hayden Billingy is to know a man of varied interests. So we just had to ask: “what brought you to gospel music?”
To which he replied, “I sang in church as a child and was mentored by Pastor Peter Ballantyne who took a keen interest in the vocal development of his choir at the Sandy Bay Gospel Chapel. Apart from that it’s the hope that gospel music brings to the listener that really make me gravitate towards it.”
Feel Him in My Soul would premiere on Tempo and TTEN TV (Trinidad & Tobago Entertainment TV) on Sunday evening. It is expected to be featured on the In Caribbean Top Ten music countdown tv show on those networks.