Cece Winans

One of gospel music’s standout voices from her era, CeCe Winans rose as the foremost figure from the Winans clan, a household that shaped spiritual charts throughout the 1980s and afterward. She possesses a commanding voice that conveys an earnest and heartfelt devotion to faith, blending the roots of traditional gospel with subtle infusions of modern pop and R&B in the production. Her singing steers clear of excessive drama, giving each performance a grounded, relatable quality that heightens both its emotional resonance and spiritual impact. The 1998 release Everlasting Love highlighted her range and independence as a solo performer, while 2001’s CeCe Winans incorporated deeper hip-hop and urban elements into her sound, and 2017’s Let Them Fall in Love ventured into classic soul territory. During the 2020s Winans captured her initial live recordings. Believe for It (2021) gathered her most cherished worship material, and More Than This (2024), captured before an expansive and energetic crowd, introduced fresh material including the track “That’s My King.”

Priscilla Marie Winans entered the world in Detroit on October 8, 1964. She arrived as one of ten siblings—the eldest daughter—to Delores and David Winans, a pair deeply committed to the Pentecostal Holiness Church. Secular sounds were prohibited inside the household, so Priscilla, known as CeCe to her grandmother, absorbed only classic gospel while occasionally encountering pop and R&B through school companions; members of the Four Tops also resided nearby. Her mother often guided CeCe and her brothers and sisters in song, and the future artist made her debut church performance at age eight. This experience prompted the broader Winans family to form a gospel ensemble that built a national following via regular spots on the Christian broadcast The PTL Club. As her brothers Carvin, Marvin, Michael, and Ronald Winans launched their own successful quartet, the Winans, CeCe teamed with her sibling BeBe to cultivate a devoted following for their joint appearances. PTL’s affiliated label brought BeBe & CeCe Winans into the studio for their debut, 1984’s Lord Lift Me Up. Three years later the duo parted ways with the PTL organization and joined Capitol Records, issuing the LP BeBe & CeCe Winans in 1987.

From 1987 through 1994, BeBe & CeCe Winans delivered five projects that performed strongly on gospel and R&B tallies before the pair pursued individual paths, with Sparrow Records releasing CeCe’s Alone in His Presence in 1995. The set earned her Grammy and Dove honors—she ultimately claimed 12 of the former and 20 of the latter—and surpassed one million units sold. That same year she collaborated with Whitney Houston on the duet “Count on Me,” featured on the soundtrack for the popular film Waiting to Exhale. Everlasting Love in 1998 achieved even greater success, yielding gospel singles “Slippin’” and “Well Alright” alongside the Lauryn Hill co-written and produced cut “On That Day.” Later that year Winans issued her inaugural holiday collection, His Gift.

She soon established her own imprint, Wellspring Gospel, which bowed with 1999’s Alabaster Box containing contributions from Take 6 and production by gospel luminary Fred Hammond. Stronger contemporary R&B and hip-hop accents colored 2001’s CeCe Winans, where the gospel rap collective GRITS participated in the sessions. A collection of classic worship pieces, 2003’s Throne Room, arrived next, coinciding with Wellspring Gospel shifting its distribution through Epic Records. Purified in 2005 allowed Winans to explore R&B, funk, and pop textures while preserving a gospel perspective, followed in 2007 by her first children’s project, the story-and-music package CeCe Winans Presents Kingdom Kidz. Also in 2007 she released CeCe Winans Presents Pure Worship, a direct and fervent worship set. Thy Kingdom Come appeared in 2008 as another robust gospel outing, and 2010’s Songs of Emotional Healing concentrated on selections offering spiritual solace amid difficult circumstances. Between these efforts she reunited with BeBe for the R&B- and gospel-charting album Still.

Winans stepped back from recording in the early 2010s after she and her husband, Alvin Love, established the Nashville Life Church. Pastoral responsibilities kept her from the studio for years, yet encouragement from her son, composer and producer Alvin Love III, prompted a return shaped by the classic soul and R&B sounds forbidden in her childhood home. Under Love’s guidance, 2017’s Let Them Fall in Love signaled her artistic resurgence, after which she swiftly followed with 2018’s Something’s Happening! A Christmas Album. In 2021 she presented her debut live recording, Believe for It, a worship set captured before an enthusiastic audience; an expanded deluxe edition arrived in 2022. April 2024 brought More Than This, tracked in Nashville alongside local worship ensembles. Another seasonal project, Joyful, Joyful: A Christmas Album, appeared that October and produced the number 11 Hot Gospel Songs single “Joy to the World.”