This Sunday, December 16th is Super Sunday for Laurel, MS native Genita Pugh. The music video for her current radio smash “Who Can?” makes its television debut on Centric TV’s “Lifted” inspirational video program between 7-10 A.M. EST. In the 9 A.M. EST. hour, Pugh makes her performance debut on BET’s long-running “Bobby Jones Gospel” program where she performs “Presence of the Lord” with choreography from the Ascension Praise Dance Ministry. Then, on Friday, December 21st, Pugh will perform live on The Word Network’s “Rejoice in the Word” program from the cable network’s new state-of-the-art Detroit production studio.
Over the last three years, Genita Pugh has emerged as one of the gospel world’s brightest new stars. She’s turned in national Top 30 hits such as “You Made It Possible”, “Can’t Live” and “Holy to the Lamb” that made it all the way up to #12 on Billboard’s Hot Gospel Songs chart. Pugh’s latest hit “Who Can?” is #21 on next week’s Billboard Hot Gospel Songs chart. “The song challenges the believer to take an introspective look at their belief and faith in The Most High to provide, restore, create and deliver in the time of need,” says Terry Woods who wrote the song that was originally recorded by his brother, Jerard Woods, in 2007. “It also points us to the One who can be everything when all else has failed.”
It’s a message that resonates well with Pugh who grew up in the church thanks to her grandmother, Willavry Glen, taking she and her siblings every Sunday when they were kids. She’s lived in Laurel, MS all of her life and spent years as a hairdresser before her husband, Donald Pugh, nudged her to launch a musical career. Although, she had always sung in the church choir, Pugh says, “I never had that confidence in myself to think my voice was good enough to ever be [national].
Now that Pugh’s been successful on the national scene and released two CDs, including her current Top Ten project, “My Purpose” (Eternity Records), Pugh is a testament to the idea that God can do anything and make dreams manifest. “My prayer has not been for me to be famous, not for me to be rich nor be this great star,” she says. ”My prayer has been that people’s lives will be changed and that somebody will be saved, healed, delivered, restored and renewed.”
