Wife-death singer now idolises Jesus

Danny Gokey sang his way into millions of homes and hearts on American Idol.

But behind the smile was a young widower fighting grief, fear and sleepless nights.

The Milwaukee-born singer – now one of Christian music’s best-known voices – lost his first wife Sophia in July 2008 after complications during heart surgery.

She was just 27. Only weeks later, keeping a promise he had made to her, Gokey auditioned for American Idol and eventually finished third in the 2009 series.

He recently said: “I made a promise that I would go try out. Little did I know that when I would try out for this show, it would be a month after she passed.”

Sophia, his high-school sweetheart, had encouraged him to audition. But after her death Gokey admitted he was crushed.

“At the funeral, there was such a numbness on me that I just could not cry a tear,” he said. “Everything that I had in me was literally drained.”

Yet in the middle of the darkness, one Bible verse kept breaking through: “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).

Gokey began receiving letters from viewers whose own despair had been touched by his testimony.

One woman, he said, had been close to suicide but found hope after hearing his story.

Today he is remarried to Leyicet Peralta, father to four children, and still singing about hope after heartbreak.

“As a young kid, I didn’t believe that Christ was enough,” he said. “I believed it was Christ plus now I gotta do X, Y and Z.

“One of the most profound things I’ve learned in my walk with Christ is that he is enough. I lean towards Jesus more than ever before.”

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