Gospel singer JoZee urges faith in turbulent times and charts sacred music with Danny Browne

American gospel recording artist JoZee maintains that, even as global pressures mount, God’s word and His teaching carry the same weight they always have.

“As cliché as it sounds, Jesus is the answer. He is our source of stability in an unstable world. He is the hope for the hopeless,” she said, pointing to what she sees as growing spiritual openness. “I am watching people become way more Christ-conscious now than I’ve ever seen before. People need to know how much Jesus loves them and how He’s waiting to rewrite their story and give them peace in their hearts.”

JoZee took the stage from age nine. She is wed to a Jamaican and splits her calendar between Jamaica and the United States. Well over ten years back, she stepped away from secular pop at the peak of a rising profile. She had held a personal deal with Quincy Jones’s Quest imprint, released through Warner, and lent backing vocals to headline names such as Whitney Houston, Jennifer Lopez, and Enrique Iglesias.

Looking back on that pivot, she said belief in Christ had to come before mainstream chart ambitions.

“After I got saved, I started to feel a very strong pull from the Lord, and it truly convicted me. I mean, how was I going to be a follower of Jesus and sing secular songs that contradict my beliefs? As much as I used to love singing for these wonderful recording artistes, I needed to stop. I wanted to stop and turn myself completely over to God for His purpose and will for my life. I wanted to demonstrate my faith in Jesus publicly,” she explained.

She acknowledged the move brought real anxiety, not least because of the income she was walking away from.

“At first, I was afraid because of the money I was making with these secular artistes, but I was reminded that my God is my provider, and I know He will never disappoint, and He hasn’t,” she added.

In recent months JoZee joined Jamaican gospel deejay and long-serving producer Danny Browne on the single Dancin Like King David, which pairs gospel themes with a dancehall pulse.

She traced the record to a social-media call-out.

“When Prodigal Son released Play di Gospel Music Inna the Dance, he did a verse challenge on Instagram and asked me to do a verse. I was shocked because I had never sung on a dancehall track before. When I wrote that lyric, I reflected on how excited David was when the Ark of the Covenant was returned to Israel and how he danced wildly, so much that his wife thought he was crazy,” she said.

Audience reaction to her guest line opened the door to a fuller joint effort.

“When Danny Browne heard my verse, he loved it so much he asked me to finish the entire song, and he co-wrote the rest of the lyrics with me. I recorded the vocals in my home studio and sent them to Danny, and he mixed, mastered and released it as a single on his Main Street Records label,” she added.

JoZee argued the song’s witness can travel far outside Sunday services.

“I want to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ everywhere, to the churched and especially the unchurched people. Like the lyric says, ‘Gospel music got the dancehall behaving’. I feel gospel music should be played everywhere. How else are people going to hear it and eventually get saved if church is the only place where it’s played?”

Partnering with Browne, whom she ranks among gospel’s most admired craftsmen, also represented a creative high point.

“Danny is a genius; creativity just flows out of him. He is seriously the best producer I’ve ever worked with, and I have worked with lots. Danny is very rooted in Christ, and writing with him is effortless,” she said. “What I love most is how he brings out authenticity and passion in the artiste. He knows exactly what he wants, and he’s a total perfectionist.”

The project likewise marked her first time laying vocals to a reggae track.

“I have loved reggae music since I was a little girl in Chicago, but until I met Danny, I had never recorded a reggae song or heard my voice on a reggae beat. Danny guided me through the different rhythms and produced a fresh new sound for me. He allows me to be myself, but with a Caribbean twist. He does have a blast making fun of me when I try to speak patois though,” she said.

JoZee, who has earlier teamed with gospel performer Papa San, is now finishing an album called Who God Says I Am, due out before the year ends.