Canadian award-winning singer and song-writer Kelita has released her first Christmas CD, Heavenly Night. A benefit project, Kelita was inspired to use her voice to aid young girls rescued from the sex trade after a trip to Cambodia in 2006.

“Most young girls play with dolls, ride bikes and go to school,” says Kelita also a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. “In Cambodia, 100,000 children as young as three define their childhood as sexual slavery.”

Available now at Christian retailers across Canada, Heavenly Night features four new songs written by Kelita, including the title track, andMark Masri. Produced and arranged by Kelita’s husband Gord Lemon, the CD encompasses traditional Christmas songs with fresh new arrangements from smooth jazz to R&B.

Heavenly Night was inspired after Kelita watched a documentary that revealed the stark and shocking truth of the childhood sex trade in Cambodia. With her husband and teenage son, she journeyed to Cambodia to witness firsthand the darkness of a poor, broken and corrupt country.

“In Cambodia,” she says, “innocent children are sexually molested and raped, serving grown men several times in a single day and live in dimly lit rat-invested rooms where they are drugged and beaten into submission. This is an assault on their dignity, freedom and safety. This is not just an X rated movie. This is their REALITY, and we can all do something about it.”

Upon her return, she searched for a way to make a difference and was inspired to produce the Christmas CD, which she will perform as a benefit concert on December 1st in the Toronto area. Proceeds from both will help the young girls Kelita met in Cambodia rescued from this modern day form of slavery. Details of the benefit are available at the YMZ Concert listings.

Kelita dedicates two of the special heartfelt songs she wrote to suffering children around the world. Not Just This Christmas was inspired after watching the child sex slave documentary. Heavenly Night was inspired after the birth of Kelita’s only child, and was previously recorded by musical theatre star Michael Burgess.

Kelita is donating all proceeds from the Heavenly Night CD and concert to change the reality of rescued children in Cambodia by advocating on behalf of them, aiding in the healing and rehabilitation of those rescued, and encouraging others to get involved.

“I hope that this Christmas CD will not only entertain and impact its listeners but will educate, inspire and offer people a concrete way of contributing to the precious lives of these forgotten and broken little souls.”

About Kelita:

2002 GMA Canada Covenant Award winner and five-time Juno nominee, Kelita has shared the stage with Jim Carrey, Reba McEntire, Randy Travis and Michelle Wright, performed on numerous television programs during her country music days, including Sun Country (a booster of both Kelita and k.d.lang in their early days) and the Canadian Country Music Awards (CCMA) show. In recent years, exuberant tones and textures of gospel define her music. Grappling with vulnerability, coping with a dysfunctional family and finally, finding strength in her faith, Kelita’s autobiographical ballads are heartbreaking in their honesty, yet uplifting and filled with a gentle healing quality. Kelita’s soulful music and message have taken her across Canada, the USA, Europe, South America and now Asia, with regular tours in the UK. She has performed in contrasting venues from churches and events numbering in the thousands to a gathering of female inmates in Lima Peru’s maximum-security prison.

For further information, visit Kelita’s YMZ artist page.

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