Lorraine Wright has been presented with her MBE for services to young people through music. The award was presented on Wednesday by HRH The Princess Royal, Princess Anne, after being announced in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2021. British-born Ghanaian Wright, joins a prestigious list of VIPs who also received their honours in the 2021 list including footballer and food poverty campaigner, Marcus Rashford, rapper and pioneer of the grime genre, Dizzee Rascal and TV presenter and diversity campaigner, June Sarpong.
The recognition for Wright derives specifically from her venture, University Gospel Choir of the Year. Often referred to as UGCY; the UK national competition later established in Ghana, is a platform for university gospel choirs to exhibit their talents, build their technical and industry know-how and be afforded a plethora of prizes. UGCY has featured thousands of students from over 70 UK Universities including the University of Cambridge, University of Canterbury, Kent, Coventry, City and Durham Universities and in Ghana, University of Ghana, Central University, University of Development Studies, KNUST, and Ashesi University.
UGCY also hosts annual shows in Ghana and will celebrate the 10th UK competition in 2023. Previous prizes have included special feature performances on various events and stages namely the X Factor, Britain’s Got Talent, The Voice and BBC Gospel Proms and appearing as the opening act for Stellar Award-winning artist, Travis Greene.
Sharing her thoughts and sentiments on receiving her award, Wright said, “The Gospel Industry at large is often heavily under-represented in the grand scheme of music artistry. It’s colourful, expressive, vibrant and incredibly uplifting, and is certainly a very personal medium for me. It’s both an honour and a joy to have myself and the UGCY team’s efforts being recognised in this way. I’ve had a fantastic time building what is now a true legacy, and look forward to replicating and introducing UGCY more broadly across the world!”
Following a challenging season due to the pandemic, UGCY will this year have a celebration rather than a competition, to allow choirs to get back on their feet after 2 years away. UGCY has officially teamed up with A Step FWD who run the UK Christian Charts and multiple other initiatives and both organisations are excited for the Uni Gospel Choir Festival on 2nd April in Croydon, London. Click the flyer below to book your tickets now and join us as we celebrate all things choir and the amazing platform UGCY has become.
Lorraine is a University of Oxford Executive MBA graduate and currently works as a Director at a Global Financial Services firm in the UK. Alongside her day job and UGCY, Lorraine is the owner of a Liona Nails beauty spa in Accra (@Lionanails), is head of sales for Grow For Me, a Ghana-based Agric tech Crowdfunding/Crowd farming start up (@growformeafrica).
