If you grew up listening to contemporary Christian music in the mid-’90s and early-2000s, brace yourself, I am about to get a song stuck in your head.
You may recall “Testify to Love,” as a bubbly, infectious CCM hit from 1997 by the pop quartet Avalon. Originally a cheery anthem to God’s love, Ty Herndon and former Avalon singer Michael Passons have re-released the song with an added layer: LGBTQ+ affirmation.
For Passons, the re-recording of his CCM hit was a moment for the song to come full circle. The Nashville-based artist left Avalon in 2003, at the time saying it was to pursue a solo career. In 2020, he revealed to Billboard that he’d been fired by the band because he is a gay man. Passons took a long hiatus from singing but kept close friendships in the music industry. One of those friendships was with Herndon, one of the first openly gay male artists in country music. Herndon was the one who invited Passons to re-record the song. At first, Passons wasn’t sure how his voice would respond when he stepped in the booth to record.
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