On December 11th, I witnessed some Christmas Magic with 3 time Grammy Award nominee & Platinum-selling Artist KEM. After such an amazing night listening to KEM deliver songs from his Christmas Album “What Christmas Means” accompanied by the National Symphony Orchestra, it became abundantly apparent that I, along with the sold out crowd at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C were witnessing KEM’as Magic [see what I did there:  Christmas Magic | KEM’as Magic]

The National Symphony Orchestra’s conductor Tim Davies first greeted the Audience with apologies for bringing the bad weather with him to the Nations Capitol saying that for some reason with all of his travels around the Globe, rain and cold just seems to follow him. After his funny anecdotes, he turned towards an eager group of musicians that raised their instruments with such precision and grace. The introduction was filled with calming melodies from the strings of violins, and cellos, and a harpist with a gold harp that sat on the far left of the stage. There were bells ringing, and sounds of sprites that whisked us off into a Winter Wonderland. There were dawns of Red and Green lighting that glowed off of the organ pipes that hung from the stage, and “baby, It may be cold outside, but its warming up in the Concert Hall at The Kennedy Center”. Suddenly KEM enters from stage right looking ‘clean’ in his Royal Green jacket with gold buttons to a thunderous applause and immediately went into his first song, “Christmas Time is Here”. He started off soft, taking his time like snuggling up in front of a fire with a cozy blanket and hot cup of cocoa. Conductor Tim Davies complimented KEM’s voice so well like whipped cream or marshmallows. The first line of the 2nd verse, “Snowflakes in the Air” had me reach for a nearby hand and reflect on all the things that this time of year brings and What is the true meaning of Christmas. I also thought about ‘Strawberry Snowflakes’.

KEM welcomed the crowd. “This is pretty cool!” he said as he gave Conductor Tim Davies a fist pump. “Yeah it is,” I thought. He thanked us who been vibin’ with him since KEMistry, and offered a formal introduction to the new fans he was surely about to create. He then moved into familiar songs like “The Christmas Song”, and “Favorite Things” and original compositions like “A Christmas Song For You” and “Be Mine For Christmas” which to everyone’s surprise, Ledisi came out to sing with him. The song is a playful duet that mixed “Me and Mrs. Jones” with “Baby Its Cold Ouside”. KEM then turned over the stage Ledisi to perform a song from her Christmas Album.

KEM returned wearing an all white suit, and led us into some of his classic songs that made us loyal fans. He began with a story about his wife (who was in the audience), and dedicated this song to her: “Share My Life”. Appearing out the shadows were a ‘cool cat’ with a hat and acoustic guitar and far right, a saxophonist. My hand clinched tighter to ‘Strawberry Snowflakes’ next to me and in that moment, i could guess what Christmas means to KEM.

After a year of realization and clarity. After many times during this year questioning what God was doing, this moment with KEM singing became magic, became a shining moment like the lights glowing from the stage. It became clear what this Christmas meant to me, and that IS LOVE, FAMILY, AND HEALTH. That is the spirit of Christmas. That is “KEM’as Magic”