After a highly successful label debut with True Beauty, American Idol’s own Mandisa will be celebrating the season with her Christmas EP featuring four tracks available at Christian retailers across Canada November 20th just in time for the holidays.

Christmas Joy EP will feature classics Joy to the World and O Holy Night as well as the Stevie Wonder favourite What Christmas Means to Me and the newly written Christmas Makes Me Cry duet with label-mate Matthew West, which will be serviced to radio as a holiday single. In addition to the “Christmas Joy EP,” Mandisa is a part of the WOW Gospel Christmas CD with her song God Speaking that is also her second single from True Beauty.

“It seems to me that even the hardest hearts soften during the Christmas season,” expresses Mandisa about recording a Christmas album. “There is a prevalent joy that draws people together and Christmas music is the soundtrack to that season. Reflecting on God’s unconditional love for us is what Christmas means to me.”

This American sweetheart will also be spreading the holiday cheer with her performance for the New York Stock Exchange Christmas Tree lighting, which will take place in New York on December 10th. The NYSE is the second largest Christmas tree lighting in the country, the first being the White House. Over the month of December, fans will be able to catch Mandisa performing live as well as on two televised specials.  Mandisa will appear on the Gospel Music Channel where she most recently taped a Christmas concert special along with Idol alum, George Huff.  On Christmas Eve, Mandisa will perform live at the Crystal Cathedral, which will be televised worldwide.  Mandisa will also perform six tour dates with Huff while in California in addition to dates with Natalie Grant.

Just over a year ago Mandisa shot to instant fame when millions of TV viewers across the nation were captivated by her winning smile and powerhouse vocals as she sang her way into the final rounds of American Idol’s fifth season. Showcasing Mandisa’s stylistic range was the task set before the five sets of producers who lined up to work with her on her debut, True Beauty.  The end result is a seamless flow of tracks that create a diverse landscape for messages of hope, inspiration and faith. Only the World is the album’s funky, energetic first single, and has spent five consecutive weeks on Billboard’s Top Single Sales chart.

Following the no. 1 Single on Billboard’s Hot Single Sales chart, appearances on The Today Show, Live! With Regis & Kelly, The Tom Joyner Show, countless radio and retail visits, vocal powerhouse Mandisa’s debut CD, True Beauty, entered at No. 1 on Soundscan’s Christian/Gospel and itunes Christian/Gospel charts.  The American Idol alum’s chart entry marked the first debut album by a female solo artist to open at No. 1 since this chart converted to Nielsen SoundScan back in 1995, as well as making Mandisa the only female solo artist to land at No. 1 on the Top Christian Albums chart with a debut album in the 27 years since Billboard began tracking Christian album sales in March 1980.

Mandisa’s desire to live free of society’s expectations sits at the heart of the messages interwoven throughout True Beauty. Issues of self-esteem and self-worth are front-and-centre among those that most young women struggle with today, and Mandisa admits she is no different.  ”More than just a career, I really want to have a ministry that has an impact on people. I just want to follow through with what is in my heart. I never want to look back and wonder, ‘What would have happened if…’”

The Christmas Joy EP will be value priced at $4.99 when it shelves at your local Canadian Christian retailer on November 20th. Audio samples from the album are available on her YMZ artist page.