Mumbai musicians release youth anthem for 2025 Jubilee

A group of musicians from Mumbai has launched an album featuring 15 songs to mark the 2025th year of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth.

Jan 26, 2025

Fr Peter Gonsalves (centre) with the team members


MUMBAI, India: A group of musicians from Mumbai has launched an album featuring 15 songs to mark the 2025th year of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth.

The collection, titled Jubilate Jesus 2025, is an initiative by Tej-Prasarini, the media production house of the Mumbai Salesian province.

The project was coordinated by Salesian Fr Peter Gonsalves, the founder of Tej-Prasarini, former dean of the Faculty of Social Communications at the Salesian Pontifical University in Rome, and a member of the Vatican Department for Communications.

A second volume with the same title is scheduled for release on July 3, the feast of St Thomas the Apostle of India.
Fr Gonsalves explained the purpose of the Jubilate Jesus project, saying: “This initiative aims to bring people together to rejoice in the birth of Jesus Christ with uplifting melodies and meaningful lyrics. The reason for creating two volumes is to sustain a spirit of reverence, joy, and worship throughout the 12 months of the jubilee year.”

The first song, Jesus Christ is Our Only Hope — a melody was composed by Korean Salesian Sr Cecilia, with lyrics by Fr Gonsalves, who has over 100 religious songs to his credit.

The song is sung and arranged by Neuman Pinto, a professional musician who produces and records music for films, advertisements, and songs with social messages.

Revealing the genesis and production of the project, Gonsalves elaborated: “I had already produced a collection of my own compositions for the millennium in 2000 titled Jesus is wonderful.

“When I realised we were approaching 2025, I began collecting old, melodious, and meaningful hymns as early as 2023. These hymns, mostly in Italian, were translated and adapted for the English-speaking world. I sought and received permission from the individual composers before starting production.”

Gonsalves added: “We then invited professional Christian musicians who owned studios to arrange the music and vocals and send us rough cuts. Upon approval, we planned the videos so listeners could learn and sing along. Each song is presented with a picture on the left side of the screen visualiasing the lyrics displayed on the right. All images are generated using Artificial Intelligence.”

In addition to translations from Italian, the two albums will include some songs in Korean and Portuguese. The production is educational and not-for-profit, with all rights to the original compositions and lyrics retained by the respective copyright holders.

The Tej-Prasarini media centre was established in 1992 at Matunga, Mumbai, under the guidance of Fr Gonsalves, as a production centre for audio cassettes with recordings of Christian and theatrical songs for the people of Maharashtra.-- Matters India

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