Ever since her late-`80s debut Just As I Am, Yolanda Adams has carried the torch for contemporary gospel and inspirational music via twelve glorious albums. Filled with the spirit and blessed with one of the most powerful voices in any genre of music, the Houston native and one-time school teacher has been a stately beacon of God’s light, earning numerous accolades and awards, including the first American Music Award for Contemporary Gospel Artist, four Gospel Music Association Dove Awards and four Grammy® Awards (including 1999’s Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album for Mountain High…Valley Low, which featured her secular breakthrough hit “Open My Heart,” and 2005’s Best Gospel Song for “Be Blessed,” on which she was a cowriter).
In 2007, Yolanda Adams made a transition to Columbia Records and is already in the planning stages for her second album for that label—a duets project that will pair her with dynamic ladies of song from across the generations.
Not only is Adams a leading voice in contemporary Christian music, she has appeared in major motion pictures such as The Gospel (2006) and is the host of The Yolanda Adams Morning Show. Putting her degree in radio/TV broadcast to good use, Adams is proud to produce a radio program that is a clean alternative morning show for people of faith. The show debuted in February 2007 and is now broadcast on fourteen stations and counting.
Adams was born and raised in Houston, Texas, where she grew up immersed in the sounds of R&B, jazz and classical, as well as gospel music. A singer from the start, she was eventually signed by Elektra/Atlantic Records where she blossomed with the releases of Mountain High…Valley Low (1999), Christmas with Yolanda Adams (2000), Believe (2001) and Day By Day (2005). Through the years, Adams has established herself as a positive and proactive presence within the music industry for which she has earned seven NAACP Image Awards.
www.yolandaadams.org