Donnie McClurkin bio (born November 9, 1959 in Amityville, New York) is a Grammy Award-winning American gospel music singer and minister.

Biography

McClurkin was born and raised in Amityville, New York. When he was seven years old, his two-year-old brother was hit and killed by a speeding driver. This greatly impacted the McClurkin family.The night of the funeral, McClurkin’s uncle raped McClurkin. Domestic violence and drug abuse took hold in the family. At the age of thirteen, McClurkin was again raped, this time by his cousin, his uncle’s son.

McClurkin found comfort through an aunt who sang background vocals with gospel music musician Andraé Crouch. After staying close to Crouch throughout his boyhood, he began to play piano and sing with his church youth choir. He formed the McClurkin Singers by the time he was a teenager, and later formed another group, the New York Restoration Choir.

Hired as an associate minister at Marvin Winans’ Perfecting Church in 1989, with his vocals during a seminar, McClurkin endured a bout with leukemia that year.

A friendship with a Warner Alliance executive resulted in his signing to the label for his 1996 self-titled LP, with producers Mark Kibble (of Take 6), Cedric and Victor Caldwell plus Andraé Crouch. The disc, which featured the perennially popular “Stand,” went gold shortly after being publicly lauded by Oprah Winfrey.At the 48th annual Grammy Awards, he won a grammy in the category Traditional Soul Gospel Album, for “Psalms, Hymns & Spiritual Songs”.In 2004, he sang at the Republican National Convention.He is now the pastor of Perfecting Faith Church in Freeport, New York.

Views on homosexuality

Although he identified as gay for several years, McClurkin states that he is now ex-gay.In his book Eternal Victim, Eternal Victor McClurkin wrote that homosexuality is a spiritual issue and that one can be delivered from it by God;

“The abnormal use of my sexuality continued until I came to realize that I was broken and that homosexuality was not God’s intention… for my masculinity.”

He then describes himself as going through a process by which he became “a saved and sanctified man”. McClurkin has stated that homosexuality is a curse.McClurkin also speaks openly about sexual issues since becoming the biological father of a child with a woman to whom he was not married.McClurkin’s listing as a headlining performer for Senator Barack Obama’s 2008 Presidential campaign stirred controversy because of his views on homosexuality.

CeCe Winans Bio Image

Priscilla Winans Love (born on October 8, 1964) and known professionally as CeCe Winans, is an American Gospel singer and winner of numerous Grammy Awards and Stellar Awards.

Early life

CeCe Winans was born in Detroit, Michigan to David and Delores (”Mom” and “Pop”) Winans. She’s the eighth of ten children, and the oldest of three girls.

BeBe & CeCe

Around time that Winans had been accepted to college, the television show “The PTL Club” (now known as “Praise the Lord”) took interest in her and her brother Benjamin (BeBe) as potential background vocalists for the show. They were accepted after going to North Carolina to audition. BeBe and CeCe moved to the PTL campus in North Carolina, and were on the show for about five years. It was during this time that CeCe met her husband, Alvin Love, Jr. who was also from Detroit. During their time on The PTL Club, BeBe & CeCe recorded Lord Lift Us Up on PTL’s label following popular demand on the show. The success yielded another effort, “Feels Like Heaven (With You)”. Eventually the success warranted another effort: a full length album.

BeBe and CeCe left PTL to pursue their singing career and recorded four more albums including Heaven, Different Lifestyles, First Christmas, and Relationships. In 1995, BeBe and CeCe split up to pursue solo careers and other interests. However CeCe Winans’ official website indicates that the two will release a reunion album in 2008. BeBe & CeCe performed their classic song “Hold Up The Light” with one of CeCe’s former background vocalists, Melinda Doolittle, on the 2007 American Idol finale. Winans co-hosted the 2008 Stellar Awards alongside Kirk Franklin and Byron Cage in January 2008.

Solo career

CeCe began her solo career with the Gold certified album Alone in His Presence. It was released in 1995 and earned her a Grammy Award and 2 Dove Awards including the Female Vocalist of the Year, an award she earned again in 1997. Winans’ next release, Everlasting Love was released in 1998. The song “On That Day” from the album was written and produced by R&B singer Lauryn Hill. Later that year, Winans released His Gift a holiday album.

In 1999, Winans started her own recording company, “PureSprings Gospel”. Her first album on the label was Alabaster Box in 1999. Some production of the disc was done by Gospel singer and musician, Fred Hammond. It included a guest appearance by Take 6. In 2000 Cece released a concert VHS titled Live At The Lambs Theater in New York. The concert contained songs from her previous albums. Winans released her next album, the self titled CeCe Winans, in 2001. The single “Anybody Wanna Pray” included a guest appearance by GRITS. The second single, “Say A Prayer” crossed over into the CCM market.

Winans took a two year break from releasing albums and returned in 2003 with Throne Room. The first 1,000 copies were issued with a bonus CD that contained exclusive interviews with the artist, the making of the CD, some touring footage, and the music video “More Than What I Wanted” (which came from the 2001 release). In 2004, the 25 city tour Throne Room featured free admission and was followed with a DVD release of the concert recorded in Tennessee near CeCe’s place of residence. Live In the Throne Room contained tracks from all of Winans’ albums. Around September 2004, Winans experienced what she thought was a flu but turned out to be a serious stomach infection and was hospitalized immediately for surgery. Due to the extended recovery time, the second half of the Throne Room Tour was postponed to early 2005.

Winans’ 7th album Purified was released in 2005. Producers on board for the project were longtime BeBe & CeCe collaborator Keith Thomas, and CeCe’s nephew Mario Winans. Winans’ son Alvin III also co-writes several songs on the album and younger sisters Angie and Debbie Winans make an appearance as well.

CeCe’s collection of Top Ten R&B radio hits include “Count on Me”, her duet with Whitney Houston, from the Waiting to Exhale soundtrack. The single was certified Gold in the U.S. and reached #8 on the Billboard Hot 100, #4 on the Adult Contemporary chart and #8 on the Billboard R&B Singles charts. She has also released her 8th Album Thy Kingdom Come on April 1st, to feature the single “Waging War.” The first single released from the album “Thy Will Be Done,” was released digitally on iTunes on April 1, 2008

Marvin Sapp Bio Image

Marvin Sapp is an American Gospel music singer, recording with the group Commissioned during the 1990s before beginning a solo career. Sapp is also the Founder and Senior pastor of Lighthouse Full Life Center Church, located in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Early years
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Kirk Franklin Bio:  A native of Fort Worth, Texas, Franklin was raised by his great aunt Gertrude, having been abandoned as a baby by his mother. Gertrude collected and resold aluminum cans to raise money for Kirk to take piano lessons from the age of 4. Kirk excelled in music, able to read and write music by ear. He received his first contract offer at the age of 7, which his aunt turned down. He joined the church choir and became music director of the Mt. Rose Baptist Church adult choir, at the age of eleven. Despite his strict religious upbringing, Franklin rebelled in his teenage years, and in an attempt to keep him out of trouble, his great aunt arranged an audition for him at a professional youth conservatory associated with a local university. He was accepted and while his life seemed to be on track for a while, the announcement of a girlfriend’s pregnancy and his eventual expulsion from school for behavioral problems proved otherwise.

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