On Friday, July 23, Every Nation Ministries made an official attempt to set the Guinness World Record for “The Most Languages Performed in a Song (Multiple Singers)” by performing “Amazing Grace” in 50 different languages.
Background on the attempt:
The Guinness World Record attempt was performed during EN2010, the world conference of Every Nation Ministries. Every Nation has churches and ministries in 61 nations and has a vision to plant a church in “every nation” of the world. Thus, singing “Amazing Grace” in 50 different languages was chosen for the Guinness World Record. In the Philippines, Every Nation is represented by Victory Church which has 14 congregations in Metro Manila and 42 provincial churches outside Metro Manila.
This world conference is only held once every three years – the previous conference, EN07, was held in Araneta Coliseum with more than 14,000 participants from 41 different nations. This time, EN2010 was held at the SMX Convention Center and featured 19,173 participants from 45 different nations.
The Story of Amazing Grace
Amazing Grace was written by John Newton, a former slave ship captain who came to Christ. Many people believe the melody of Amazing Grace is actually an old African folk song that Newton would have heard as the singing of the slaves wafted up from the hold of his slave ship. One of the most beloved Christian songs, Amazing Grace has been translated into almost every language in every nation. It is also referred to as the “National Anthem” of the Cherokee Indians, who sang Amazing Grace to encourage one another on the “Trail of Tears” as they were led on a forced relocation of almost 2,000 km on which 4,000 men, women and children perished.
On Friday night, July 23, participants of EN2010 celebrated “every nation” by singing “Amazing Grace” in 50 languages, including: Arabic, Mandarin, Zulu, Persian, Hindi, Spanish, Tagalog, Japanese, Cebuano and Cherokee Indian.
Full list of languages performed by Every Nation at EN2010:
- English
- Yoruba
- Japanese
- Zulu
- Spanish
- Mandarin
- Hindi
- Korean
- Persian
- Samoan
- Afrikaans
- Arabic
- Thai
- Ibo
- Cherokee
- Tagalog
- Greek
- Italian
- French
- Russian
- Burmese
- Swedish
- Norwegian
- Irish
- Hawaiian
- Dutch
- German
- Cantonese
- Bengali
- Setswana
- Portuguese
- Turkish
- Maori
- Tongan
- Malaysian
- Vietnamese
- Lao
- Cebuano
- Nepali
- Mongolian
- Indonesian
- Hokkien
- Xhosa
- Konkani
- Marathi
- Gujarati
- Lotha-Naga
- Tankhul
- Manipuri
- Sign language
