Full Name: Yolanda Yvette Adams
Born: August 27, 1961
Job: Singer, songwriter, music producer, actress, radio host
Origin: Houston, Texas, United States
Active: 1979 – present
American Grammy- and Dove-award winning Gospel music singer and radio show host. As of September 2009, she had sold 4.5 million albums since 1991, according to SoundScan.
On December 11, 2009 Billboard Magazine named her the 1st Gospel Artist of the last decade. In the same chart, her album "Mountain High...Valley Low" was acknowledged as the best gospel album.
Life
The oldest of six siblings,
Adams was raised in Houston, Texas. She graduated from Sterling High School in Houston in 1979. After graduating from Texas Southern University, she began a
Career as a schoolteacher and part-time model in Houston, Texas. Eventually she gave up teaching to perform full-time as a lead singer.
Musical Career
Beginnings
Adams first attracted the attention of Thomas Whitfield and Sound of Gospel Records as a lead singer with Houston's Southeast Inspirational Choir affiliated with the Church of God in Christ, under the direction of Carl Preacher, Brenda Waters, and Shirley Joiner. The choir released the single in 1982 "For My Liberty" with Adams as the featured vocalist. In 1986, Adams was featured on the Edwin Hawkins Music and Arts Seminar Choir release "Give Us Peace", with a performance titled "My Trust Lies In You". Later, she signed a recording contract with Sound of Gospel which yielded her first album
Just As I Am in 1987. In 1990,
Yolanda signed to Ben Tankard's independent label Tribute Records and released
Through The Storm. Two years later,
Adams followed with
Save the World, which included her first signature song "The Battle Is The Lord's". Her next release was 1995's
More Than A Melody, which featured production work from Ben Tankard, O'Landa Draper, and BeBe Winans. The single "Gotta Have Love," from that album featuring Tony Terry on background vocals, gained mainstream notoriety and was her first single and music video.
Yolanda... Live In Washington, released the following year, featured versions of material from her first two albums. The footage from this recording was released as a collection of two videos on VHS initially, and later as a single set on DVD.
Songs from the Heart was her final release for Verity Records and included "Only Believe" which was popular songs on contemporary radio. The album also included "Still I Rise," a dedication to Rosa Parks which was inspired by the Maya Angelou poem of the same name.
"Fragile Heart", was dedicated to the memory of Adams' long time road manager who died in 1998.
Adams' first significant attention outside the urban contemporary gospel arena came with the release of
Mountain High... Valley Low in 1999 on Elektra Records. Several mainstream artists and producers helped in the production of this album including Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis (Janet Jackson, Boyz II Men), James "Big Jim" Wright (Mariah Carey, Nicole C. Mullen), Warryn Campbell (Mary Mary, Brandy), and Keith Thomas (BeBe & CeCe Winans). The album went Platinum in 2000 and won her a Grammy Award. Notable singles from the album include
Yeah", "Fragile Heart", and "Open My Heart".
In 2000, Adams released a Christmas album, and in 2001 she released a live album (
The Experience).
The Experience netted Adams a second Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album.
Believe, which included the hit "Never Give Up" was released in 2001. She would later go on to perform this song at "
The Salute to Gospel Music" at the White House during President George W. Bush's administration. In 2001, Adams also released a compilation CD entitled
The Divas Of Gospel; it included the legendary Grammy Award Winner Albertina Walker, who is considered the "queen of gospel music."
Adams recorded a song for the 2003 film,
Honey titled "I Believe" that played during the last scene in the final dance.
Adams was also a judge for the 2nd annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers.
Back after break
After nearly four years without releasing an album, Adams returned in 2005 with
Day By Day. Although charting higher than
Mountain High...Valley Low on the Billboard 100 and Billboard R&B Albums chart, it did not receive RIAA certification. The album featured the singles "Be Blessed," "Someone Watching Over You," "This Too Shall Pass", and "Victory" (which was prominently featured in the movie
The Gospel).
After ending her long association with Atlantic Records, Atlantic released a greatest hits collection entitled
The Best of Me in May 2007.
Adams signed with Columbia Records in 2007. Columbia released
What a Wonderful Time, her second holiday collection, in October 2007. "Hold On" was released as the lead single.
2008-present
In 2007, after releasing her holiday album with Columbia,
Yolanda Adams stated in different interviews that she was in the planning stages for a new album. Her official website stated that it would be a duets project, with possible collaborations with Mary J. Blige,
Alicia Keys, Natalie Cole, Trin-i-Tee 5:7, and Mary Mary. In an interview with Commercial Appeal, Adams stated that Chaka Khan and Shirley Caesar could possibly be on the new project as well. In March 2009, in an interview on a FOX station in Houston, she stated that her women's clothing line and new album are both still in progress. She stated that the new album will be full of dance tracks.
Adams' song "Hold On," from her 2007 holiday album
What a Wonderful Time, is included in a compilation in support of Barack Obama's campaign entitled
Yes We Can: Voices of a Grass Roots Movement.
On December 25, 2009, Adams performed on BET's
The Mo'Nique Show, where she sang "Already Alright," from her 1999
Mountain High...Valley Low album. Mo'Nique stated that the song is one of her favorites.
As of 2010, the new album, highly anticipated follow-up to
What a Wonderful Time, is still in the making.
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