CHRISTIANNEWS.COM.- After a 40-year career in Christian music, Carman Licciardello: died in Las Vegas on Tuesday night due to complications from surgery. He was 65 years old.
He was a one-name celebrity, and to those who knew him, the Christian singer and showman ranked in the upper echelons of American stardom as: Madonna. Cher and Liberace.
Carman performed concerts and crusades, his commitment was to produce a pop show for Jesus. “Music is the best medium I have to reach the most people in the fastest way and win them over to Christ”Carmen said.
“I think an artist owes it to their audience to thrill and impress them. He lets people know that there is joy in being a Christian.
Carmelo Domenic Licciardello was the youngest of three children in an Italian-American family in Trenton, New Jersey, won seven Dove Awards.
It was nominated for four Grammy Awardsnamed Billboard’s Contemporary Christian Artist of the Year in 1990 and 1992, and sold more than 10 million albums.
In 2013, 30 years after his first success and shortly after his cancer diagnosis, his fans raised $280,000 for him to tour 60 cities.
“When Carman resumed touring a few years ago, he was worried that no one would care that he was back. He was wrong. Every night fans packed the venues and his ministry was as powerful as ever,” said Matt Felts, Carman’s manager, in a tribute.
“This world has lost a light in the darkness, but today Carman saw firsthand the fruit of his labor.”
His music blessed many
The singer had many fans who loved him dearly and described how much their faith had strengthened. “All his music touches my heart. I thank God for blessing Carman with the gift of music,” wrote a Christian on Carman’s Facebook wall.
Another described how much her song “Satan, Bite the Dust” meant to her. “That was the best Carman,” she wrote. “When the enemy attacks you, he remembers that he is defeated and when we get to heaven you will have a great opportunity to kick the devil’s fat butt back to hell.”
Carman was born in 1956. She described her mother Nancy Licciardello as a “child accordion prodigy”. She gave Carman her love of the stage and her first acting opportunities.
“I knew I wanted it,” recalls Carman, “and once I tried it, I loved it.” Carman dropped out of high school at age 17 and achieved early Top 40 success in Atlantic City. When he turned 20, he decided to try doing it as a salon act in Las Vegas.
In Las Vegas, Carman struggled to break into the music scene or make a name for himself. She took a break to visit her sister, also named Nancy, in Orange County, California. Nancy and her husband, Joe Magliato, a pastor at Centro Cristiano Son Light, were worried about Carman’s salvation and tried to convince him to accept Jesus. Carman resisted, then remembered that he believed what they said, but he was too proud.
face the truth
However, he wasn’t too proud to accept an invitation to go to a music festival. at Disneyland, and Carman heard the gospel message again on the Andraé Crouch show. This time, he accepted.
“I faced the truth and received it,” Carman said. “It wasn’t that I was doing something musically that hadn’t been done. But when he sang he could feel the presence of God ».
The decision to follow Jesus ended Carman’s music career, and he spent the next five years working odd jobs in Southern California, until he began performing in churches and was then drawn into the burgeoning contemporary Christian music scene.
In 1981, Carman began touring as the opening act for the Bill Gaither Trio. He signed with a new label, Priority, which nearly ended his career when he went out of business within a year and wouldn’t release the rights to his recordings. However, Myrrh grabbed him and started over with the song “Lazarus, Come Forth”. He released “Sunday’s on the Way” in 1983.
Carman had success with “The Champion” in 1985 and his first number one album on the Christian music charts with Revival in the Land in 1989.
Over the next 10 years, Carman released 12 albums, five of which reached number one on the Christian charts. He absorbed and adapted every pop style imaginable, transforming them into rock opera narratives, “story songs,” starring Carman and built around his trademark spoken-singing style.
The Gospel Music Hall of Fame said their performances were a “combination of drama, rock, comedy, funk, satire, acting, singing, and preaching, all interwoven.”
Carman, for his part, celebrated the indescribability of his style. “There’s one thing you can say about my music,” he said. “It is exclusively mine. And you don’t have to listen to the same sound for 10 songs.”
records
With his success in Christian music, he expanded into music videos, movies, and mega-concerts. He is believed to have set a record for the largest Christian concert in 1993 with 50,000 people at one venue in South Africa, and then again in 1994 with more than 71,000 in Texas.
However, he sometimes had doubts about his success. “I would stand backstage and look at these huge crowds and think, I don’t understand. no one is that good Carman said. “I always have the feeling that at any moment, everyone will look at each other and say ‘what are we doing here’ and everyone will turn around and walk away.”
It started happening in the 2000s. His career slowed down, his record label dropped him, and he struggled to come to terms with a new record company. Then Carman suffered a series of personal tragedies: he lost money in the financial crisis; his brother died; he had a fight with his sister; a close friend died in a plane crash; he was in a car accident and suffered internal injuries.
no plan b
In 2013, he received a terminal cancer diagnosis. As Carman wrote to his fans on Facebook, doctors told him he had incurable myeloma and three or four years to live.
After an outpouring of support, Carman launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund an album and tour. He raised $280,000 and began the No Plan B tour. When the cancer went into remission, he attributed his cure to the faith of his fans.
“Friends, you are the ones who have literally wanted this man and this ministry to come to life!” Carman wrote.
Carman married for the first time at the age of 61 in December 2017 and continued to tour when the cancer returned in 2020. He announced it as “Carman Live: A CinemaSonic Experience.” The slogan read: “It’s a concert. A movie. A work. A crusade. An unmissable event!”
According to Carman, he was doing the same thing he had done his entire career: “I’m making Jesus very nice to our American culture, I guess you can tell. In a way that anyone can relate to.”
He died of complications after hiatal hernia surgery. In the end, she was planning another tour, Christianity Today reports.
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