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ZOEGirl...Heart-Pounding
Beats and Heart-Warming Lyrics
By Jasmine McNealy
To anybody
this would seem like a great plague of low self-esteem had descended upon the
youth of the nation. A nation
where most of the young people get their culture and role models from what
they watch on various music networks like MTV and BET. But if the
heroes and heroines of the youth of today are those who sing while scantily
clad and grinding up against someone, then Zoegirl has decided to be the
anti-heroes of the day. These
three women, from different parts of the country, have joined together to
form a trio of songbirds that speak life to the youth of the nation, and the
world. Prior to1998,
the three knew nothing of each other. The story of how they came to meet each
other demonstrates the divine calling for this group. First, the man who
would become their manager introduced Alisa and Kristin, and then Chrissy was
discovered and brought into the group. Chrissy had previously been in a
mainstream group with Pink, which had broken up. After returning to her hometown and becoming a Christian,
she really began to seek God for what she should do with her music, and what
kind of ministry she should be in.
Chrissy prayed that
prayer one night, and unbeknownst to her, someone had given Kristin her name
and number. Kristin called her
the next day, and the rest is history. “It’s a long story,” she said. “But it
is so special to us, because we just feel like He had such a plan for this
ministry….We started working immediately.” The heart for
youth demonstrated in their song according to Kristin Swinford, one of the
members, goes deep. Both Alisa
and Kristin “Basically,
we have a heart for ministry,” she said. “We all knew that kids out there
really need a positive influence. We just knew that there was a great need in
the marketplace right now.” As for doing
a mainstream record, Kristin says the group declined because they wanted an
opportunity to share their faith. “Anybody
could go out there and go for the mainstream and make all the money, but
that’s not what we’re in this for.” But the
pop/mainstream sound of their music is apart of their ministry also. “The message
of the music is important too,” she said. “That’s what we want to convey in and through the
relevance of the music, and create something they want to listen to.” The feedback
from their audience, which is largely comprised of females, also influenced
them to make their music relevant to the lives of young people today “You really
get to know what they are going through,” Kristin said. “Eating disorders, depression,
they are really hit hard now a days with all kinds of pressures. But that’s why we’re here, and that’s
why we really have a heart for that. And we want them to know that they are
not alone. We’ve been through
some of these things, and there is hope for you. God loves you so much. You can stand up to the pressures, and you don’t have to
go the way the crowd just because they’re doing it.”
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