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By Helen McGurk

Published 28th Jun 2024, 19:00 BST

Updated 29th Jun 2024, 07:30 BST

The Lisburn man’s auspicious birthday on December 16 is one of the reasons why the Grammy-nominated Christian artists decided it was an opportune time to perform their Christmas show in Belfast for the very first time.

Keith and Kristyn Getty, who split their time between Nashville and the North Coast (school holidays are spent just outside Bushmills) are in Belfast with their four (also very musically talented) daughters, Eliza, 13, Charlotte, 10, Grace, 9 and Tahlia, 6, to promote the upcoming show at the SSE Arena in Belfast on December 20.

“We’ve been doing the concert, called ‘Irish Christmas’ in the States for 15 years, so we are finally bringing it home,” says Kristyn, who looks stunning in a double-denim outfit.

“We are excited to be coming with our band, with all our daughters and we have special guests joining us, as well as the New Irish Choir & Orchestra, for a celebration of the Christmas season and Christmas carols.”

Keith describes the concert as “a show of two halves”.

"The first half is like an Irish Christmas party, with lots of Christmas music.”

“And there’ll be a little bit of Irish dancing….but not from us,” laughs Kristyn.

The second half of the show will be devoted to the lessons and carols.

“It goes through the entire nine lessons and carol service, but all in 60 mins,” says Keith. “So instead of getting a reading that maybe lasts five minutes, it might just be four sentences and then in to the next carol.

"And 9,000 people in the SSE Arena can all sing carols at the top of their voices, from Silent Night to Hark the Herald Angels Sing to O Come All Ye Faithful. It finishes with a little bit of a hoedown at the end with Go Tell It On the Mountain and lots of gospel.”

Kristyn adds: “We have a super band coming. It’s a real blend of bluegrass Americana musicians and some Celtic musicians. People say Nashville and Belfast are twin cities, so the twins are coming to town!”

"Nashville is Belfast West,” laughs Keith, adding they have had lots of requests to bring the Christmas show to Northern Ireland.

“Back in 2014 it was recorded by PBS Television in America and then we did a second TV special live at the Grand Ole Opry in 2019 and both of those shows have played on BBC Northern Ireland. Every Christmas we get lots of requests to bring the show back to Northern Ireland and we had always wanted to do that. And, at an even deeper level, we’ve been writing music and hymns for almost 25 years and they sound like this island, they sound like the soil of this country.”

Keith Getty from Lisburn and Kristyn from Belfast have been credited with revolutionising the hymn genre since 2004, and been described as pre-eminent hymn writers, who have changed the way evangelicals worship.

They gained global recognition with their hit song, In Christ Alone, which has been covered by numerous musicians such as American artists, Alison Krauss and Owl City.

The Gettys have recorded 26 albums together, and have been nominated for a Grammy Award, as well as winning two Dove Awards by the Gospel Music Association. They have their own record label and publishing company, Getty Music, and have performed at iconic venues worldwide, such as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts, and the Sydney Opera House, with performances in front of world leaders.

In 2018, Keith became the first contemporary Christian artist to be awarded the OBE from the late Queen for his services to music and hymn writing and last year the duo were made Freemen of the City of Lisburn.

Like any couple who have been married a long time, the Gettys, who tied the knot in 2004, enjoy a bit banter and gentle teasing of each as they explain their song-writing process.

"We have never argued in our lives,” says Keith, adding, “I’m joking. It is a feisty, spicy process!”

"We craft them (the songs) often over quite a long period of time,” says Kristyn. "I lean towards the lyric more and Keith leans towards the melody. We tweak them and edit them until we feel they are ready to go out."

Kristyn adds that they both feel the ‘responsibility” of their music, of “writing the best words, the best melodies to help build up the church.”

And before each show the deeply devout Gettys will pray.

“We gather the team and we pray for the evening and think about what we are about to do. There are so many different layers of what happens at a concert and part of all that is just taking it so seriously.

"It’s a special trust, people coming to a concert, investing their time to come and spend the evening with us and we want to put on a special evening for people,” says Kristyn.

Whilst Keith doesn’t get nervous before a show, Kristyn always does.

"There are certain protections I would do for my voice. I would rest a little bit more before, have hot drinks. Keith does all the chatting, I become a little more quiet before the concert. He gets it much easier! He comes in five minutes before and goes ‘what am I wearing?’ Whereas it takes me a little bit longer.”

Do they have a favourite hymn, or would that be like asking if they have a favourite child?

"Picking a favourite child would be easier,” jokes Keith. “Obviously, In Christ Alone was the one that changed everything, so there’s always something special about that. We’re always thankful for that because that opened the doors for everything we’ve got to do.

“However, I’ve never been as excited about a release as our latest one, which is less of hymn and more of Celtic soul song, called Scarlet Thread.

"We wrote it last year with a couple of friends and it’s coming out in July with an artist called Zach Williams, who is a southern blues country rock musician. Kristyn and his voices are just incredible on it."

Kristyn often gets asked if she gets bored singing In Christ Alone, but says: “If there was a song that I had to keep singing over and over again it would be that one. The message is so deep and rich and is so deeply connected to what is the most important part of our life, which is our Christian faith. It is constantly helpful, it’s constantly in date, it’s timeless to the soul.”

The Gettys’ music has become a worldwide phenomenon.

"We have a good friend who is a pastor and was speaking at a church in Africa. He was lost, trying to work out how to get to the church when he heard one of our songs playing and followed the sound of it to find the church!, laughs Kristyn.

Keith adds: “We played a concert in Belfast years ago, and after the concert a man came over to me and said, ‘Thanks for your music. I’ve been translating it into an Indonesian dialect in the island where we live as missionaries’. I said: ‘How did you discover it.” He said: ‘I was your coalman when you were a kid’. I have never got over that. Even thinking about it today it makes me emotional.”

If Keith and Kristyn hadn’t followed the musical path, Kristyn says she’d perhaps have become an English teacher.

“The two things that really inspired me growing up as a kid, was the local church that my parents were part of planting whenever I was little. And I was an Anne of Green Gables fanatic – I loved the books, the movies. I had a wonderful English teacher at Ballyclare High School called Mr Lenaghan, who really inspired me, and if I hadn’t been a singer, I think I maybe would have been an English teacher.”

Keith, on the other hand, says he “never had a Plan B”.

“So if this hymn thing doesn’t work out I don’t know what I’m going to do,” he laughs.

At home the Gettys listen to all types of music.  

"Our girls, who’ve got these Irish parents, are born and bred in Nashville and love country music. It just makes us smile, because they have the accents and they’ll say, ‘hey, y’all gonna come and hear this song’, and we think, ‘who are you?’ say ‘youse’ or ‘youseins’, laughs Keith.

“We love traditional Irish songs and all the pop songs and with four girls there’s all the Disney princess songs. Grace is a Swiftie.

Family is hugely important to the Gettys, and when they aren’t making music or touring, they just enjoy hanging out with their girls.

“Pickleball (a sport that combines elements of tennis, badminton, and ping-pong) has become a huge thing in our family. We love to bake and cook and we love having pepole around to the house,” says Kristyn.

“I love making music with my daughters. When they start singing in harmony, it’s just wonderful,” adds proud dad, Keith.

Tickets for the Gettys Homecoming concert at the SSE Arena in Belfast on December 20, 2024 are available at ssearenabelfast.com and ticketmaster.ie

Big Interview: Keith and Kristyn Getty on bringing their popular Christmas Show to Belfast

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