New York, NY (Top40 Charts) The worship team from Planetshakers Church, one of Australia's fastest growing churches in history, released Outback Worship Sessions globally amidst acclaim last week through Integrity Music. During its first week at retail, the album became the most downloaded iTunes album across all genres of music for a period of time in Malaysia and Singapore while hitting No. 3 in Indonesia, No. 8 in South Africa, No. 9 in Australia, No. 12 in Colombia, No. 21 in the Philippines, No. 22 in Taiwan and more significant chart positions across the globe. The album also hit No. 1 in Australia, No. 2 in the USA and No. 3 in the UK on the iTunes Christian charts. As the church and its music transcends cultures, languages and geographical boundaries, Outback Worship Sessions' first week sales success has made it one of the fastest selling albums in Planetshakers' history.
What started as a project to re-craft Planetshakers' most-loved worship anthems into a form accessible to worship teams representing the wider church body grew into an 11-track studio recording produced by Grammy- and Dove-Award winning Ed Cash. Giving a new intimate 'voice' to Planetshakers' best-loved anthems, Cash also co-wrote "Spirit Of God" and "
Father" for Outback Worship Sessions with Planetshakers' Bj Pridham. Cash further penned the album's new song, "My Soul Longs For Jesus," which NewReleaseTuesday.com (NRT) calls "an incredible song for the Church." The new video of the song recorded in Australia's Outback and released May 9 has already received more than 43,000 views at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYjxHPtKihw.
Two additional videos for "Like A Fire" and "Nothing Is Impossible" from Outback Worship Sessions have been recorded organically in a small church in the heart of Australia's Outback. Together with "My Soul Longs for Jesus," the videos will be hosted on YouTube as resources for churches and worship leaders around the globe.
Integrity
Music is also offering a companion digital Outback Worship Sessions songbook free of charge through www.weareworship.com.
Seeing and hearing the vision of the new album, Worship Leader magazine lauds the recording as "A gift to the Church… a powerful collection of accessible, incredible congregational songs… a powerful worship experience, both familiar and new." NewReleaseTuesday.com agrees that "there are several instantly singable and worshipful arrangements that you'll want to add to your Sunday morning setlist," as Soul-Audio.com declares the music is "perfect for church worship teams or times of personal worship." LouderThanTheMusic.com suggests "this album is one to get hold of straight away," affirmed by FDRMX.com saying that "Outback Worship Sessions is a carefully crafted album that will usher in a new generation of fans."
Having led over 200,000 people at a single event in Asia and sharing new music and other favorite Planetshakers worship anthems around the world, Planetshakers will be featured May 23 during the Big Church Day Out in West Sussex, UK along with Switchfoot, NEEDTOBREATHE,
Lecrae and more. Planetshakers will also be the featured worship leader June 28-29 during several events at CBA's International Christian Retail Show 2015 (ICRS) that will include appearances by Lee Greenwood, Josh McDowell, Steve Green (Hobby Lobby) and others. Planetshakers will further be featured during the
National Worship Leader Conference June 23-25 and headlining along with
Casting Crowns and
Jesus Culture "Florida's biggest Christian music festival," Rock The Universe, Sept. 12. These and other upcoming tour dates follow:
May 21 - Empowered 21Global Congress - Jerusalem, Israel
May 23 - Big Church Day Out - Wiston House - West Sussex, UK
May 24 - Buju 2015 - Messe Erfurt, Germany
May 25 - Christustag - Linz, Austria
May 29 - Oygospel - Kristiansand, Norway
May 31 - Springtime Festival - Frauenfeld, Switzerland
Jun 23-25 - Worship Leader Conference - Kansas City, MO | USA
Jun 26-27 - Reinhard Bonnke Gospel Crusade - Chicago, IL | USA
Jun 28 - International Christian Retail Show (ICRS) - Orlando, FL | USA
Jul 3 - Worship Explosion - Bridgeport, CT | USA
Jul 17-18 -
Arise Conference - Horizon - Wellington, New Zealand
Jul 19 -
Arise Church - Wellington, New Zealand
Jul 31 - Planetshakers Live - Singapore
Aug 4 - Planetshakers Live - General
Santos City, Philippines
Aug 6 - IFGF Conference - Jakarta, Indonesia
Aug 8 - Planetshakers Live - Bandung, Indonesia
Aug 11- 12 Planetshakers Live - Taipei, Taiwan
Aug 14 - Planetshakers Live - SOLD OUT - Manila, Philippines
About Planetshakers Band:
Planetshakers Band is passionate about uniting generations worldwide through worship and is known for favorites like "Like A Fire," "Endless Praise," "Nothing Is Impossible," "This Is Our Time" and "The Anthem." As Australia's largest youth/young adult Christian movement, Planetshakers' goal is to see people encounter God, be transformed by His presence and empowered to make a difference in their world. While they tour internationally, the team remains based out of Planetshakers Church, a multi-campus, 12,000-plus member congregation based in Melbourne, Australia that is pastored by husband and wife, Russell and Sam Evans.
In addition to the music and message, Planetshakers Church is involved in numerous community and charitable causes including prison ministry, school programs, refugee outreach, disaster relief and welfare assistance. It also partners with World Vision to assist in urgent humanitarian crises around the world, and runs Planetshakers College in Melbourne, which equips local and international students to impact their world for Christ.
A church, a movement and a gifted musical ministry, Planetshakers also reach 105 countries with Planetshakers TV, a 30-minute Christian television program birthed out of the desire to empower generations to win generations.
Additional information about Planetshakers Church and Planetshakers Band and its touring is available at https://www.planetshakers.com, www.twitter.com/planetshakers and www.facebook.com/planetshakers, where Planetshakers has over 777,000 likes.
