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To judge from the number of recordings (they run into the thousands) Amazing Grace is one of the world's most popular hymns. And yet this global 'hit' was many years in the making. Penned by a former slave trader turned abolitionist, John Newton, it was in America that it would be popularised, largely through the agency of a Welshman who wedded it to the tune with which we are familiar nowadays.

Ironically, the song was most enthusiastically adopted by African Americans. And it would be two centuries before a hymn written for a rural parish in Buckinghamshire would return to Britain as a popular song, conquering the charts with recordings such as Judy Collins' version in 1970, and an unlikely chart-topper in 1972 with The Pipes And Drums And The Military Band Of The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards.

Rosa Hunt explores the various twists and turns, and the ironies in this story of John Newton's most famous hymn, which is now some 250 years old. Acclaimed baritone and composer Roderick Williams talks about his collaboration with poet Rommi Smith in writing a song-cycle expressing some of our contemporary unease with a hymn which is both loved and despised, depending on perspective. Historian James Walvin is the author of a new book on Amazing Grace, and he provides the historical context to Newton's life, whilst Welsh historian Marian Gwyn gives her insight into the nature of the Atlantic slave trade at the time of John Newton. One landmark recording of the song was made by Paul Robeson, and Beverley Humphreys comments on both that recording and on Newton's words.

This programme was first broadcast in November 2023.

Producer: Geoff Ballinger

https://www.johnnewton.org/Groups/222562/The_John_Newton/new_menus/Amazing_Grace/Amazing_Grace.aspx
https://cowperandnewtonmuseum.org.uk/john-newton-1725-1807/