Yolanda Adams Biography

The American gospel singer Yolanda Adams was born in 1961 in Houston, Texas. Yolanda initially began her work in entertainment as a model, while still pursuing a career as a teacher. Adams sang with her local church regularly, though, and it was through these performances that she caught the attention of Sound of Gospel Records, which signed her to the label in the late 1980’s.

Yolanda Adams’s debut album, Just as I Am, was released in 1987 and achieved moderate success. The album paved the way for her next record deal, with Tribute Records, to release her sophomore effort, Through the Storm, in 1991. For the next few years, Yolanda Adams released consistently well-performing gospel albums, establishing her career as one of the era’s most successful gospel performers. Notable albums include: Save the World (1993), More than a Melody (1995), Songs from the Heart (1998), Mountain High… Valley Low (1999), Believe (2001), The Experience (2002), Day By Day (2005), and What a Wonderful Time (2007.)  

Yolanda Adams’s albums have spawned multiple gospel hits, most notably “Open My Heart,” Victory,” “This Too Shall Pass,” “Be Blessed,” and “Hold On,” with Mountain High… Valley Low being Yolanda’s most successful mainstream crossover album to date, reaching multi-platinum status and earning Yolanda her first Grammy Award. In addition to the Grammy, Yolanda Adams has won four Dove Awards, an American Music Award, sixteen Stellar Gospel Music Awards, and four BET Awards.

In 2007, Yolanda Adams made the switch to Columbia Records and in that same year she launched her morning radio show, “The Yolanda Adams Morning Show.” The show has proven to be an enormous hit, reaching nearly forty markets at present. In recent years, Yolanda Adams performed on The Mo’Nique Show and the BET Honors. She also published her first book, Points of Power, in 2010. Adams released her most recent studio album, Becoming, in 2011, featuring the hit single “Be Still,” although she has also announced plans to return to the studio for another album release in the coming year.