It may not top her 15 Grammy Awards or 23 Gospel Music Association Dove Awards, but in late 2020 CeCe Winans became the first gospel vocal star to record a live worship album during the COVID-19 pandemic — albeit for a very small, invited audience.
"With the pandemic, you experience everything more. And what you took for granted you no longer do," Winans said of her aptly named "Believe For It," which is also the title of her latest book.
Released in March 2021, the 15-song live outing earned her Best Gospel Album honors at this year's edition of the Grammys. Its success inspired Winans to recently launch her first national concert tour in nearly a decade.
"Everything has changed since the pandemic began," said the Detroit-born vocal powerhouse, currently on tour with her five-piece band.
"We have learned how things that we never thought could be taken away from us can be taken away at any moment. The isolation really took its toll on people, so I think they are ready to embrace touring and concerts again.
"And I'm out here performing because of what my latest record has done and because people want to experience it live. I'm grateful and humbled to be able to do this. Going back out on tour is not something I thought I'd be doing at this point."
Doing the unexpected has long been the norm for Winans, who is the top-selling female recording singer in gospel music history.
She began her professional music career as a teenage member of The Winans, which teamed her with five of her seven older brothers.
Like brother, like sister
CeCe and her brother, BeBe, released their first album as a vocal duo, "Lord Lift Us Up," in 1985. Three years later, their album "Heaven" boasted three singles that became Top 40 R&B hits on the national Billboard charts. Credit for this goes not only to their inspirational singing but to lyrics that could be regarded either as odes to spiritual fulfillment or to more earthly pursuits.
A key example is the duo's "Depend On You," an early 1990s number with a popping, dance-happy beat and a techno-funk production sheen worthy of Janet Jackson. It features BeBe and CeCe singing such lyrically ambiguous lines as: "I never thought that I could ever need someone/ The way that I have come to need you."
The duo's 1991 release, "Different Lifestyles," became the first album by any gospel artist to top Billboard's R&B charts. It remains the only such album in memory to feature guest vocals by both Mavis Staples (on a remake of the Staple Singers' 1972 hit, "I'll Take You There) and rapper MC Hammer (on "The Blood").
The sister-and-brother duo did not record together between 1994 and 2009 while they pursued solo careers. CeCe put out her debut solo album, "Alone in His Presence," in 1995. Her 1998 album, "Everlasting Love," featured two hit crossover singles: "Well Alright" and "Slippin'."
Then, as now, BeBe and CeCe's unprecedented success as gospel singers attracting a broad secular audience remains a rare feat.
"That felt awesome!" CeCe recalled, speaking from her Nashville, Tennessee, home. "It made us realize early on that people love good music, all types of people, all around the world. They embraced us and gospel music.
"To get our songs played on secular radio was great, because no artist wants to be boxed in. We wanted our music to reach as many people as possible. Because we felt we had something to say with good music people could enjoy — and that gospel music wasn't something to only be enjoyed on Sundays. Doors opened for us. And, over the years, they have stayed open."
Is she a fan of country music?
"I live in Nashville, but not because I'm a country music fan," said Winans, who with her husband, Pastor Alvin Love, leads the Nashville Life Church. "I do like some country music. I don't know if I love it; I don't know if I love all of any kind of music.
"But it's been awesome living here. The people in the country world and culture are very kind and have embraced us, so I do enjoy being here in Nashville. I'm a disciple of Jesus, who happens to sing."
———
