Tumes Time In Christian Music?

05/28/1998 3:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Bruce Haring

(5/28/98) - Just two months after the release of her first album, contemporary Christian singer-songwriter Michelle Tumes is being lauded as the best-selling new artist of 1998, according to her label Sparrow Records.

The sales have been fueled by her No. 1 single, "Please Come Back." And while there's still six months left in the year, bets are on that Tumes will be able to hold onto her title.

All of that bodes well for landing the Australian singer a mainstream record deal, in addition to her Christian market affiliation with Sparrow. The practice, common with Christian artists, takes advantage of a mainstream record company's marketing and promotion expertise in non-Christian markets to expand an artist's audience. Amy Grant's records, for example, are released on Myrrh Records in the Christian market, and on A&M to the rest of the world.

Tumes's ethereal music has been described as a hybrid of Enya and Sarah McLachlan, and is lyrically quite accessible outside the Christian market. Thus, pushing Tumes to the mainstream market has always been part of the plan. According to Tumes, however, it's been more a matter of timing and bad luck than anything else.

"EMI Records picked it up and had it for a long time," she explains, "but then the company folded. Then Virgin Records picked it up, but the head guy that was really interested in it [Phil Quaterero] left to go to Warner Bros. So now it's sort of up in the air, whether it's EMI, Virgin or Warner Bros. But I hope they find a partner, because I think some of the songs will be really accessible to the mainstream audience."