Gladys Knight

About

The great ones endure, and Gladys Knight has long been one of the greatest. Very few singers over the last fifty years have matched her unassailable artistry. This seven-time Grammy winner has enjoyed #1 hits in pop, gospel, R&B, and adult contemporary, and has triumphed in film, television, and live performance.

Georgia-born, Knight began performing gospel music at age four. Just a few years later, Gladys and her siblings and cousins formed a group and started making a name for themselves. They called themselves The Pips. The group debuted their first album in 1960, when Knight was just sixteen. With Knight singing lead, and The Pips providing lush harmonies and graceful choreography, the group went on to achieve icon status, recoding some of the most memorable songs of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Top-20 hits, like Every Beat of My Heart, Letter Full of Tears, I Heard it Through the Grapevine, and If I Were Your Woman set the stage for an amazing run in the mid-1970s, with top-10 gold-certified singles like Neither One of Us (Wants to be the First to Say Goodbye), I’ve Got to Use My Imagination, Best Thing to Ever Happen to Me, and the #1 smash Midnight Train to Georgia established Gladys Knight and The Pips as the premiere pop/R&B vocal ensemble in the world. 

Knight, known worldwide as the “Empress of Soul,” has recorded more than 38 albums throughout her career. A tireless performer who still wows audiences around the country and the world, Knight also finds the time to make forays into film and television. Knight cameoed on the Emmy-winning NBC hit comedy 30 Rock, starred as Jamie Foxx’s mother on The Jamie Foxx Show, and appeared as a guest judge on American Idol. 

A humanitarian and philanthropist, Knight has devoted to various worthy causes, including the American Diabetes Association, the American Cancer Society, the Minority AIDS Project, amFAR and Crisis Intervention, and The Boys and Girls Club. She has been honored by numerous organizations as well, including the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Congress of Racial Equality, B’Nai Brith, and is a recent recipient of BET’s Lifetime Achievement Award.