DJ Pope in da house! Pope Francis is releasing a Vatican-approved pop-rock album. Yes, Pope Francis is releasing a pop-rock album. According to iTunes, the album, which is due out in November and available now for pre-order, is titled Wake Up!, and features the leader of the Catholic Church’s sacred hymns and prayer excerpts set to uplifting music. News of the album comes amid the Pope’s historic visit to the United States.
In case you can’t wait to jam out to His Holiness’ music, the first single, “Wake Up! Go! Go! Forward!” is available for download now with your pre-order.
“Wake Up! Go! Go! Forward!” is actually quite catchy and features trumpeting horns and electric guitars throughout Francis’ speech. "Wake up / Wake up," Francis can be heard saying on the track after the beat builds. "The Lord speaks of a responsibility that the Lord gives you / It is a duty to be vigilant / Not to allow the pressures, the temptations and the sins to dull our sensibility of the beauty of holiness."
Wake Up! features 11 tracks and Pope Francis speaks in all different languages, including Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese.
"For many years, I've been the producer and the artistic director of albums by the Pope. I had the honor to work with John Paul II, Benedict XVI and now Pope Francis," producer Don Giulio Neroni told Rolling Stone. "As in the past, for this album too, I tried to be strongly faithful to the pastoral and personality of Pope Francis: the Pope of dialogue, open doors, hospitality. For this reason, the voice of Pope Francis in Wake Up! dialogues music. And contemporary music (rock, pop, Latin etc.) dialogues with the Christian tradition of sacred hymns."
According to a press release, some of the album’s proceeds will be donated to “a support fund for refugees.”
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Click here to listen to Pope Francis’ first single. Wake Up! drops Nov. 27.
