Kirk Franklin is one of the biggest stars in contemporary gospel music and will be performing in Austin at The Theatre at the Frank Erwin Center Sunday, March 26. Tickets go on sale Friday, February 3 at 10AM.

Since his debut in 1993 with Kirk Franklin and the Family, Franklin has been a mainstay on the Billboard gospel charts. Songs off this debut album kept him on the charts for 100 weeks, crossed over to the R&B charts, and became the first gospel album to go platinum. Franklin is now celebrating the success of his newest album, Hero. Last year it debuted in the #1 position on Billboard’s Gospel Album AND Christian Album charts.

The Associated Press writes, “The album [Hero] contains Franklin’s typical but explosive mix of hip-hop and R&B-flavored gospel. He also uses samples from soul classics – from Earth Wind and Fire’s “Keep Your Head to the Sky” to Randy Crawford’s “You Bring the Sun Out” – to create this comfort-food for the soul.”

Franklin will host the Gospel Music Association (GMA) awards on April 5 in Nashville this year with Rebecca St. James. The Dove Award is the highest honor given to gospel music artists. Franklin himself has won nine Dove Awards and is a three-time Grammy award recipient.

Franklin will be joined by two other Grammy award winning, platinum-selling gospel singers. Mary Mary is a duo, sisters Erica and Tina Campbell. Mary Mary’s platinum debut album, Thankful put the two on the map in 2000. The sisters followed up their debut in 2002 with their album, Incredible. They’re now back after a short break with their third, self-titled album and tour to support it. This most recent album was released July 2005 and debuted in the Top 10 on the Billboard Popular Albums chart.