Gladys Knight

Hailed as the Empress of Soul, very few singers over the last 50 years have matched her unassailable artistry. This seven-time Grammy Award winner has enjoyed #1 hits in pop, gospel, R&B and adult contemporary, and has triumphed in film, television and live performance. In her first effort since 2013’s Another Journey, this summer marked the release of Where My Heart Belongs, a new inspiration gospel album. Knight is a two-time Grammy winner in the gospel category, and Where My Heart Belongs dropped on Sept. 9 from Deseret Book, and recently won an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Gospel Album.

Georgia-born, Knight began performing gospel music at age four in the Mount Moriah Baptist Church and sang as a guest soloist with the Morris Brown College Choir. Three years later, she won the grand prize on television’s Ted Mack’s Amateur Hour, and the following year, her mother Elizabeth Knight created the group consisting of Gladys, her brother Bubba, her sister Brenda and her cousins William and Elenor Guest. They called themselves The Pips in honor of their cousin/manager, James Pip Woods.