When Gospel music’s highest honors are showcased on television this weekend, longtime R&B, soul artist MAJOR. finds himself nominated for his first two Stellar Awards. It’s a dream come true for the singer who’s best known for his love songs.
Major R. Johnson Finley is best known as simply MAJOR. He captured the world’s attention with his platinum love song “Why I Love You” back in 2016. Today, his song titled “I Prayed for You” is nominated for two Stellar Awards. The first nomination is for Song of the Year, and the second is for Urban Single Performance of the Year.
MAJOR. sat down with CBN News’ Studio 5 in Nashville prior to the awards show.
Contemplating his two nominations, he said, “So two Stellar Awards in the genre that started MAJOR. off. The genre that started MAJOR. off. And I know much of the mainstream space got to know me as Mr. ‘This is Why I Love You.’ I am grateful, really grateful in real time, grateful for the success of that song’s impact. But it started gospel for me.”
“So, I found on my journey to be clear to anyone listening and just finding out about me, gospel was the initial plan. I mean, I wrote it out, and God had to unveil to me His plans. And it wasn’t that it wouldn’t be Kingdom, it just would be different. Sure enough, my promise as I shared before was if I crossover, I’m taking the crossover with me. And it has been Kingdom ever since. ‘Why I Love You’ is a love letter to God, and love wrote me back. And now we have ‘I Prayed for You’, a song about prayer, taking me to the top of the chart. That’s crazy,” MAJOR. said.
He wrote “I Prayed for You” during COVID and birthed in response to text message from actor Chadwick Boseman.
The text message read: “I am asking those of you who have enough faith to pray and meditate on the healing of the whole planet….. Pray that those that suffer experience the showering of our faith if they have lost it.”
Boseman sent the text to MAJOR. and several others just four months before losing his four-year private battle with colon cancer.
“Chadwick Boseman was a big brother of mine in spirit, still I honor his legacy. But on April 4th, 2020, Chadwick sent a text message to a group of us, imploring us to pray for the hope of the world. And he said that this COVID-19 has somewhat debilitated us. It’s caused us to believe that there’s no hope. We’re drowning in a sea of hopelessness,” MAJOR. told CBN News’ Studio 5.
“Chadwick was as deep as we see ’em on TV. But it was simple. He said, the plague {COVID} was asked why it had killed so many. He said, the plague was asked why it had killed so many? The plague responded, ‘I only killed a hundred. The thousands that died died from the fear of me.’ It’s hope. Hope is the key. And I’m a hope dealer. I’m my mama’s favorite hope dealer.”
“And so in that moment, I was awakened to my assignment and that is to amplify hope. And so not only did I pray, but I wrote a song about it. It was released a couple years later, and then it is timely. It’s almost like a prophetic song that speaks to every season and every time. And to see how far it’s gone, man, it’s crazy. I got a number 1 on Billboard, ‘Why I Love You’ went Platinum. But prayer, a song about prayer that speaks to the heart of the individual and to the heart of the land is a song that took me to the top of the charts for the first time ever. Number 1 on Billboard for two consecutive weeks.”
It is a season of more for MAJOR. More answered prayers and more music.
“I’m just blown away at how God is using me in this season and answering prayers. It feels like a season of finally, and I know I’m talking a lot, but I’m just excited about how good God has been and is being to me in this time. By the time this airs, we’ve got a surprise drop, the Hope Dealer Sessions. My song for ‘The Win.’ I have a new version of that. So we’re in there. But this Hope Dealer Sessions is a motivational, mixtape, spoken word and music to impact the heart and soul of community and the individual and his powerful brother.”
Now that his nickname is “The Hope Dealer,” MAJOR. told CBN News’ Studio 5 how hope came alive in his life.
“Can I say hope has always literally been in the who of me all my life, all my life. I had to hope. I just saw life through an optimistic lens. I didn’t come from affluence financially; I didn’t come from tremendous resource. But I came from a family that instilled the principle of faith and go-getter and excellence. If you want it, you work in excellence for it. And so, it was always in who I was.”
“But my mom, when she told me in college, the meaning behind my name, because Major is my real name. She said, I prayed that Major would make a major impact on the world if I named you that. And it was then that I said, oh, there’s more purpose behind it. And hope rang true.”
You can watch MAJOR. and a celebration of gospel at the 40th Annual Stellar Awards. It airs August 31st on the BET Network.
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