Sponsors Line Up For Kirk Franklin Tour

12/18/1998 4:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Lisa Zhito

(12/18/98, 1 p.m. PST) - R&B/ gospel star Kirk Franklin hits the concert trail Dec. 26, and a host of sponsors have lined up to be part of the act.

Few gospel artists have the sales muscle to entice big-league corporate benefactors such as Kmart, Yamaha, and Shure Electronics, but Franklin appears to be the exception. His 56-city tour will be supported by these corporations and Honey Nut Cheerios, Church's Fried Chicken, and Soft N' Beautiful. Kmart is the tour's presenter.

Franklin is an easy sell to the corporate world because his music is a hit with young urban kids--his Nu Nation Project shipped platinum back in September, and remained in the Billboard 200 top 20 for five weeks, which is rare for a gospel artist. Because he's a gospel act, companies feel the act is safe from every corporate marketer's nightmare: controversy.

"The Nu Nation Tour" also promises to be a major event: other artists on the bill are CeCe Winans, Trin-i-tee 5:7, 1NC (One Nation Crew), and Steps Of Praise.

"We are gonna run it until it runs dry," Franklin said of the outing, which runs until April. "If God doesn't allow the ticket sales to be big, we'll do small theaters. If God wants us to be in arenas, we'll do that. If God wants us to sing 'Amazing Grace' on the corner, we'll do it!"

The tour opens at UNO Lakefront Arena in New Orleans, then goes on to hit arenas and theaters in major markets such as New York, Miami, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Oakland, and Seattle.

To read a feature on Kirk Franklin, click here.

-- Lisa Zhito, Nashville