Pope Francis To Release Rock Album

After a busy week travelling through the United States of America, Pope Francis is not going to take a break. Vatican officials have announced that in November the pontiff will release his debut prog-rock album titled “Wake Up!” Rolling Stone reports that the 11-track album will feature a variety of songs, hymns and chants in several languages. The title track single “Wake Up! Go! Go! Forward!” was premiered on Friday, September 25. The lyrical component is Pope’s speech in English, addressing a South Korean audience last year. “Wake up, Wake up! The Lord speaks of a responsibility that the Lord gives you. It is a duty to be vigilant, not to allow the pressures, the temptations, and the sins to dull our sensibility of the beauty of holiness,” the Pope says on the track. “No one who sleeps can sing, dance and rejoice,” he continues, urging his listeners to wake up and go. READ ALSO: PHOTOS, VIDEO: Pope Francis Can’t Stop Laughing At This Baby, But Why? On Wake Up!, Pope Francis addresses such important issues as peace, dignity, environmental concerns and helping those who are in need. Don Giulio Neroni, Wake Up!’s producer and artistic director, set the Pope’s powerful messages to music. “For many years, I’ve been the producer and the artistic director of albums by the Pope. I had the honor to work with John Paul II, Benedict XVI and now Pope Francis,” “As in the past, for this album too, I tried to be strongly faithful to the pastoral and personality of Pope Francis: the Pope of dialogue, open doors, hospitality. For this reason, the voice of Pope Francis in Wake Up! dialogues music. And contemporary music (rock, pop, Latin etc.) dialogues with the Christian tradition of sacred hymns,” Neroni said. READ ALSO: TOUCHING: SEE How 5-Year-Old Girl Surprised Pope Francis (PHOTOS) For this amazing project, the producer recruited songwriter Tony Pagliuca, who composed “Wake Up! Go! Go! Forward!” and several others pieces on the album. “Putting my music in the service of the words and the voice of Pope Francis has been a fantastic experience and a very interesting artistic challenge, ” Pagluica said.