Amy Grant to Launch New Holiday Recording and Tour AFTER A TUMULTUOUS 1999, including separation and divorce from her husband of 16 years Gary Chapman, Amy Grant is preparing for the Oct. 19 release of her third Christmas recording A Christmas to Remember (Myrrh), as well as a major-market holiday tour Nov. 24 - Dec. 22. "An Amy Grant Christmas," which began as an annual fundraiser concert for the Nashville Symphony Orchestra six years ago, featured such guest artists as CeCe Winans and Michael W. Smith. After numerous sold-out shows, and thousands raised for the Symphony and other local arts organizations, the event grew into a national tour two years ago. On this year's tour, Grant will again be joined by the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, as well as special guests Word Records artist Point of Grace, who will perform selections from the group's new holiday record A Christmas Story; Smith, whose new studio recording This is Your Time (Reunion) releases Nov. 23; and Gotee Records artist The Katinas. The 21-city tour, which is sponsored by Target Stores, family-friendly Internet service provider Dotsafe, Land o' Lakes and Musicforce.com, features 80 to 90 performers on stage at one time. "The Christmas tours are an ongoing part of my life," Grant told CCM NEW MUSIC for an upcoming article. "[This tour and record] allowed me to have the fun of discovering new Christmas music to bring to audiences in a live setting." Myrrh Records Vice President of Marketing Steve Ford added: "Amy always intended to do three Christmas recordings; she saw this as a trilogy. It's the right time for her to do this, and people love her Christmas records." Over the past two years, the tour, with the exception of one or two shows, has drawn capacity crowds. Chaz Corzine, senior vice president of artist relations for Blanton Harrell Entertainment [Grant's management] is anticipating another sold-out tour. The shows' audiences, Corzine said, garner a wide demographic; fans of everything from contemporary Christian music and pop music to symphony. A Christmas TV special, scheduled to air the first week of December on CBS, will be a key promotional tool. Myrrh, Word and Reunion Records will work independently and together to market their respective artists' releases and the tour. "Everything we're doing from a record label standpoint," said Ford, "is focusing on both the tour and the product. So any ads for the tour will feature product and vice versa." In-store merchandising, including a floor display, endcaps and posters will advertise Grant's Christmas album. Myrrh has created some spot POP materials for stores in tour markets usable with the existing merchandising that will feature product from Grant, POG and Smith. The labels, Ford said, plan to work with Christian music radio stations for promotion, which will include ticket and product giveaways. "With an artist of Amy's stature, my marketing focus is informing her audience that the product is out there," Ford said. "Her fans are so loyal, I don't have to convince anyone." But Myrrh does expect to face some opposition due to Grant's announcement in March that she had filed for divorce. Ford said "certain retailers" have said they could not carry Grant's album, but he does not believe that will hinder sales, expecting to hit 250,000 units sold by year-end. Grant's A Christmas to Remember - which includes classics like "Jingle Bell Rock," as well as new songs co-written with Chris Eaton, and Chris Rice's "Welcome to Our World," - was recorded mostly live. The record will release simultaneously with POG's A Christmas Story to the general-market via Word's partnership with Epic. Smith's 1998 release, Christmastime, will also see a general-market push via Reunion's parent company Zomba, Corzine said. The albums will also be sold online. Musicforce will pre-sell Grant's album and deliver it to customers' homes on the street date. Though prices have not been finalized, Musicforce will likely pricepoint the product, though not drastically, GETdigitalmedia's Vice President, Content & Communities, Randy McCabe told THE CCM UPDATE. The site's Christmas promotion will center around the album and tour, McCabe said. Grant will participate in an online chat as well as record a spot for Fish TV. Other promotions will include online contests, articles and ancillary broadcasts. McCabe anticipates the alliance will provide "gigantic" exposure for Musicforce. "We'll be tagged onto all the print, radio and TV advertising and marketing. This will be the biggest thing our brand has ever seen to date." Dotsafe, which is also sponsoring Third Day's, Steven Curtis Chapman's and John Tesh's fall tours, will distribute its CD-ROM at the concerts. Concert-goers who subscribe to Dotsafe via the distributed CD, will receive regular e-mails from Grant, Dotsafe founder Robert Maynard told THE CCM UPDATE. The newly launched company has a "large" budget for TV, Maynard said, adding that Dotsafe would "love to do TV promotion with Amy and Target around the tour." Target, which has maintained a relationship with Grant for the past 10 years, will again take a "subtle approach" with its sponsorship, Corzine said. Tour marketing will include several components including TV and newspaper advertising, direct mail and Christian radio promotion. The direct-mail campaign will target churches and 3,000 concert-goers within a 60-mile radius of each tour city. Promoters will likely spend $2 million in promotion of the tour, Corzine said. He also plans to work with Christian radio. "I really hope Christian radio supports it," he said. "She's supported Christian radio for years." Compassion International, which will be a beneficiary of the tour and has garnered 5,000 child sponsorships over the past three years of the tour, will also do a mailing to their supporters. Aggressive TV advertising will also be part of the mix. Last year, Blanton Harrell ran a tour ad in USA Today. However, that won't happen this year. "It's tough to bite the bullet and pay what those ads cost," Corzine said. "I think the label's done such great positioning we won't need it." While Grant is aware some may object to her decision to divorce, she said this tour is in no way an attempt to reposition her image in the Christian marketplace. "This was not on any level an attempt at smoke and mirrors," she told CCMNEW MUSIC, "but having within the last year gone through a divorce, I certainly wasn't wanting to say, 'Hey, everybody, look at me.' It just seemed like an honest way to provide music for people without requiring people to make a personal judgement about my life or my choices or putting the magnifying glass on me." - Lindy Warren