CMT News

Amy Grant and Vince Gill's Dec. 6 Christmas concert in San Antonio will be broadcast live to American troops in Baghdad, Iraq, and 176 other countries on the Armed Forces Radio Television Network.

Originating from the SBC Center, the event will also feature a two-way audio/video hookup that will enable selected soldiers in Baghdad to see and speak with their family members in the audience at the concert. According to the AFRTN, this is the first time that such a face-to-face hookup has been arranged.

Reporters from national media outlets are being invited to cover this "electronic reunion" in San Antonio, and media in Iraq will watch the broadcast and speak to the soldiers selected to participate in the hookup.

The San Antonio concert is the fourth stop on couple's 14-city Simply Christmas With Amy Grant and Vince Gill tour. It will be taped for re-broadcast Dec. 6-12 to U. S. military forces elsewhere in the Middle East, Europe and the Pacific. Besides Grant and Gill, the tour features the Nashville Chamber Orchestra and comedian Henry Cho.

"Our men and women in the military and their families continue to make great sacrifices for our country," says Allison Barber, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs. "The department of defense appreciates when people such as Amy Grant and Vince Gill take time to recognize and appreciate that sacrifice." Because of the time differences, troops in Baghdad's Green Zone will be viewing the San Antonio show at 4:30 a.m. on Dec. 7.

Simply Christmas With Amy Grant and Vince Gill, the most recent incarnation of the duo's holiday specials, launches Thursday (Dec. 2) at the Riverside Centroplex in Baton Rouge, La., and will conclude Dec. 19 at the Office Depot Center in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.