“So now it’s you, stuck in the wake of these words so many others have heard. Wondering how you’ll get through. You just let go, into the music that plays. Dance with the songs as they change. That’s how you’ll know what to do.”
— “Welcome Yourself,” Amy Grant
When Amy Grant was asked to write a song that spoke to women who might be battling cancer, she turned to a knowledgeable source for assistance — her friend, singer-songwriter Beth Nielsen Chapman, a breast cancer survivor.
As Chapman and her husband were heading to their car after a dinner at the Tennessee home of Grant and husband Vince Gill, the inspiration to recruit Chapman hit Grant like a thunderbolt.
“The need and the opportunity collided,” Grant said recently of the fortuitous encounter. “I said to Beth, ‘Tell me your story,’ and oh my gosh, it was so compelling that it made me love her even more. I was thinking, ‘I’ve laughed with you, I’ve cried with you.’ I never could have written that song without her telling me her story.”
Chapman’s experience in 2000 began with the dreaded feeling of, “It’s not as if I don’t have enough on my plate already,” Grant recounted, but then developed into a more positive outlook that inspired Grant’s direction with the song, “Welcome Yourself.”
“Beth said when you get the diagnosis, it gives you the gift that all of these things that you didn’t have the energy to do are suddenly prioritized. Cancer is an opportunity to welcome yourself to be aware of things,” Grant said.
On Saturday, Grant will perform the sweet, uplifting ballad just before 9 a.m. at Centennial Olympic Park in downtown Atlanta to mark the start of the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk.
About 15,000 registrants are expected to raise more than $1 million for the fight against breast cancer, and the walk will commence outside the American Cancer Society’s national headquarters on Williams Street (those not participating in the walk are welcome to attend Grant’s free performance).
Grant, whose father is a retired radiation oncologist, has long been familiar with the American Cancer Society’s work. She was tapped to record the empowering “Welcome Yourself” through her affiliation with Athena, the foundation created in 2003 to help fund the battle against women’s cancers.
Athena chose the American Cancer Society to be the recipient of the funds from the sale of downloads of "Welcome Yourself" (which is available via iTunes). Through the end of the year, the Cancer Society will receive 77 cents per download of the song.
“What an honor to pick up the banner and do something,” Grant said.
While Grant conceded that, "I'm past my radio prime" and joked that in recent years, trying to get her songs played on radio has been “like pushing a boulder up a hill,” she was surprised — happily so — that immediately after she performed the song on NBC’s “Today” show to mark the start of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, radio stations began inquiring about its availability for airplay.
Grant, of course, welcomes any exposure to “Welcome Yourself” because of its long-term benefits to the American Cancer Society.
But, she added, “It’s already been a success to me, just the experience of doing it.”
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