A Thousand Concerts Singing ‘I Do Believe’

Singer Tajci and her husband, Matthew, are a team that has communicated their own faith via 1,000 performances sharing Christ’s love through music.

(photo: idobelieve.com)

CINCINNATI — Every Christian at some point in his life must ask the question, “Do I believe?”

For Matthew Cameron and his wife, Tajci, the answer is an emphatic “I do believe” — and they are inviting thousands of other Christians to do the same at their 1,000th “I Do Believe” concert at the College of Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati on Oct. 26.

On the outside, this Catholic husband-and-wife team look like they have it all. Tajci (pronounced Ty-chi) is a former Croatian pop star who left the communist atheism she grew up with for the Catholic faith and her homeland and music career to start a new life in the United States. Her husband Matthew, a graduate of Christendom College and entrepreneur from Indiana, met her while working in Hollywood as a producer.

The couple married in 1999, and, that same year, inspired by their faith and Blessed John Paul II’s Letter to Artists, they embarked on a 13-year adventure that includes giving life to three young children, while also putting on beautiful concerts throughout the United States.

The Camerons’ story almost sounds like a Catholic fairy tale — yet when Matthew and Tajci tell their story, they want people to know of the challenges that often don’t get told in fairy-tale books: the part where living happily ever after involves hard work, sacrifice and renewed trust in God’s loving care through the good times and the bad.

The Register spoke with Matthew and Tajci in advance of the 1,000th “I Do Believe” concert. They shared that they are two very real people who go through life’s sufferings, tears and triumphs like many of the other people they have encountered in their wide travels. Many of the people at these concerts have a strong emotional response to the songs and stories, from laughing to crying.

“Everybody can recognize that there is a part of our story that is their story as well,” says Tajci.

Both Tajci and Matthew are candid: They’ve struggled and faced moments of deep personal crisis — even in their own marriage. In the “I Do Believe” concerts, Tajci shares her own story and the story of her marriage with the audiences they meet. At the end of each concert, the audience is invited to sing along with Tajci as she sings "I Do Believe.”

The husband and wife look to the upcoming concert as a major milestone in their 13 years of performing on the road.

“We’ve been at this for a long, long time. As we started, it wasn’t really a plan,” Matthew says. “We were working in film, but we both had a passion of affecting people through the arts. One concert led to another, and through many series of events and through other people, we realized we had fallen into this path.”

Tajci adds, “I would say we were open to really listening to where God was calling us.”

A Difficult Accomplishment

A thousand concerts is a major accomplishment, and for Matthew and Tajci, this milestone has been accompanied by unique difficulties. The couple made the decision to go on the road together as a family, which means Tajci had the challenge of being three times pregnant, a nursing mother and taking care of toddlers on the road. And the concerts had no industry or professional backers.

“It was literally Matthew and me and a bunch of volunteers, parish secretaries and lay ministers that really wanted us to come to their parishes and their communities to affect people around them” that made the concerts happen, she said.

Tajci shares that, while the concerts have inspired others, they have also had a key role in her and Matthew’s spiritual journey.

“You realize it is so perfect how God puts all these things together, so that we personally can heal,” she says.

The 1,000th “I Do Believe” concert marks the beginning of the new “Awaken” phase in their musical journey. AWAKEN is the name of Tajci’s new album, and the songs speak to the situations that many people encounter.

“A lot of these songs were inspired by our marriage and our struggles,” she says. “We went through some pretty hard times before we were able to say, ‘You know what? It's okay to fall down, but we have to get up, and we have to fix this. We have to allow God to heal us instead of being broken and pretending we’re not.’ I think pretending we are not broken is the worst that can happen, and we see a lot of that in our society.”

Struggles, Tears and Triumphs

Hearing a Catholic husband and wife, whose work involves spreading the faith through art, admit they have struggled profoundly in their marriage is not something one expects to hear.

Matthew shared that he and Tajci were once “borderline separated” — Tajci shared that she was so miserable, she even considered divorce — all while they were on the road putting on concerts.

But then they discovered the Retrouvaille marriage encounter, a suggestion made by some wonderful, communicative couples they encountered in St. Louis, who had also gone through the program. They learned to communicate, listen and share in a deeper way, overcoming their differences.

“We started publicly telling people that we did this and that it really made a big impact in our lives,” Matthew says. “So many people would come up to us afterward and say, ‘I can’t believe that you would say that you had problems in your marriage.’”

In a certain way, what Tajci does with her music is provide a Gospel witness that can speak to others who are going through their own suffering and can draw courage to believe in God’s loving care and unlimited mercy.

“How can you show your faith if you don’t show your brokenness and your vulnerability?” Tajci asks.

Both Matthew and Tajci bring their children with them, and their children join their mother to sing at one point during the concert. But central for the family is praying together.

“We pray as a family. We encourage each other and the kids to pray and say: What are we grateful for?" Tajci says.

 “Everything we do that glorifies God in our being is a prayer,” Tajci adds. “I just love that.”

Vocation as Artists

Matthew and Tajci say that they are now looking to find a way to use Tajci’s music to reach out beyond the walls of the Church and follow Pope Francis’ lead to “go out and make some noise.”

“I believe that artists have a huge role in our society,” Tajci says. During Croatia’s war for independence in the 1990s, she remembered how “20,000 screaming girls” were attending her concerts “looking at me for hope and answers.”

“I could sing, provide distraction, but not lasting answers,” she recalls. “We have to know our role and whose purpose we are serving: Is it our own, our industry’s or God’s?”

Matthew and Tajci say they want to see more Catholic musicians out there making music that springs from their faith. But they note that if the Church wants to transform society, it has to find a way to support Catholic artists, so they can make a living at their work.

“We don’t have an outlet for Catholic musicians. How are we going to develop and encourage these artists if we don’t support them?” Tajci says.

Tajci credits Matthew’s ingenuity with making it possible for them to make a living as Catholic artists. Matthew says they’re both driven and they’ve made “some huge sacrifices” along the way. However, they encourage young Catholic artists not to give up.

“I think there are solutions, but it will take some visionary people, and it will be the grassroots,” Matthew says. He added that the only way for Catholic artists to make it is if they feel so inspired they can’t do anything else. “We need to make those people more valued in the Church — and right now, they aren’t at all.”

1,000th Concert

Matthew and Tajci are excited about the upcoming 1,000th concert, which will feature many other musicians who have toured with them over the past 13 years.

Tajci says the message of this concert is: “Be inspired, be engaged, believe, and live life awakened.”

“Great things are happening in the world from people who don’t take No for an answer, who are really open to God, to guide their feet and put the wind at their back,” she says.

“I couldn’t agree more,” Matthew says. “We’ve traveled to 1,000 parishes. But this is your chance to travel to us, and we hope to see you there.”

Editor's Note: Mathew and Trajci will be on EWTN's Life on the Rock celebrating their 1,000th concert on Nov. 14 at 10pm Eastern Time. Click here to learn more.

Peter Jesserer Smith is a Register staff writer.

For more information about the 1,000th I Do Believe concert, click here.