Country music singer-songwriter Matthew West opened up about working with longtime friend Candace Cameron Bure on a new Christmas song. Candace recently left her longtime partnership with Hallmark and moved on to create films exclusively for Great American Family Network. In addition to creating some new movies, she worked with Matthew on “Come Home for Christmas,” which became the holiday theme for Great American Family Network.
Matthew said that an event in Nashville actually inspired the song. After it was safe to gather again following COVID, Nashville decided to have an in-person Christmas celebration weekend and called it Come Home for Christmas. He said he’s never “had an event inspire a song before, but (he’s) sure glad it did.”
Candace Cameron Bure and Matthew West created a new Christmas song
It became the theme song for the Great American Family Network after he had a conversation with Candace. He explained, “Candace was working on a new movie for the Great American Family Network, and she texted me, and she’s, like, ‘I want a song for the movie,’ and I said, ‘Well, I can send you this.’ She heard it, and she’s like, ‘I love this song so much. I want to send it to the head of the network.’ She sent the song to the head of the network and, lo and behold, the song wasn’t right for the movie, but the head of the network said, ‘We want this to be the theme of our whole network for the holidays.’”
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After Candace told him more about the message for her new movie, he wrote a song for it as well. Candace and Matthew have been friends since 2011 when she appeared in the film The Heart of Christmas, based on a song that he wrote.
He shared, “She wound up actually starring in a film called The Heart of Christmas, which was a film inspired by a song I wrote years ago that was inspired by a little boy who was a St. Jude’s patient named Dax Locke. I actually got to be on set with Candace years ago making this little movie… they even put me in the movie. I played the part of the friendly neighbor.
“I don’t want to brag, but I’m pretty sure I knocked it out of the park,” he added with a laugh.
Listen to “Come Home for Christmas” below:
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