Elections

Women’s Chorus Replaces ‘Jesus’ With Candidate’s Name In African-American Spiritual [VIDEO]

Chuck Ross Investigative Reporter
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Hillary Clinton’s campaign needs a resurrection in New Hampshire, but this is a strange way to go about it.

(RELATED: Bernie Sanders Rockets Past Clinton By Nine In New Hampshire)

The Democrat invited the “alternative” women’s chorus Voices From the Heart to sing at a campaign event in Portsmouth, N.H. on Saturday. And the group did so, distorting the African-American spiritual “Woke Up This Morning (With My Mind On Jesus)”:

Woke up this mornin’ with my mind, stayin’ on Hillary
Woke up this mornin’ with my mind, stayin’ on Hillary
Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelujah!

Voices From the Heart, which consists of 200 members, didn’t just decide to praise Clinton on its own. Clinton’s campaign invited them to sing, according to a post on the group’s Facebook page:

CALLING ALL VOICES SINGERS, Active Singers and Sabbatical Singers! Please check your email for details of an amazing invitation we’ve received from the Hillary Clinton campaign to sing SATURDAY MORNING in PORTSMOUTH. We need a certain # of singers to sign on before we can commit later today.

It is unclear who decided to replace “Jesus” with “Hillary” in the lyrics. The group did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Clinton needs all the help she can get in New Hampshire. A NBC News/Marist poll released on Sunday shows that Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders leads the former secretary of state by nine points. Clinton was up by 10 over Sanders when the same poll was conducted in July.

Voices From the Heart has put a political spin on African folk songs before.

In Jan. 2009, the chorus sang and dedicated the Swahili folk hymnal “Bwana Awabiriki” to newly-elected president Barack Obama. Swahili is one of the official languages of Kenya, the homeland of Obama’s father. As with its ode to Clinton, the group interspersed Obama’s name in the song.

[h/t The Blaze]

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