Yolanda Adams

Yolanda Adams, the American Grammy- and Dove-award winning Gospel music singer and radio show host. As of September 2009, she had sold 4.5 million albums since 1991, according to SoundScan.

On December 11, 2009 Billboard Magazine named her the 1st Gospel Artist of the last decade. In the same chart, her album "Mountain High...Valley Low" was acknowledged as the best gospel album.

The oldest of six siblings, Adams was raised in Houston, Texas. She graduated from Sterling High School in Houston in 1979. After graduating from Texas Southern University, she began a career as a schoolteacher and part-time model in Houston, Texas. Eventually she gave up teaching to perform full-time as a lead singer.

In 2007, after releasing her holiday album with Columbia, Adams stated in different interviews that she was in the planning stages for a new album. Her official website stated that it would be a duets project, with possible collaborations with Mary J. Blige, Alicia Keys, Natalie Cole,Trin-i-Tee 5:7, and Mary Mary. In an interview with Commercial Appeal, Adams stated that Chaka Khan and Shirley Caesar could possibly be on the new project as well. In March 2009, in an interview on a FOX station in Houston, she stated that her women's clothing line and new album are both still in progress. She stated that the new album will be full of dance tracks.

Adams' song "Hold On," from her 2007 holiday album What a Wonderful Time, is included in a compilation in support of Barack Obama's campaign entitled Yes We Can: Voices of a Grass Roots Movement. As of December 2009, the new album is to be released in 2010.

In December 25, 2009, Adams performed on BET's The Mo'Nique Show, where she sang "Already Alright," from her 1999 Mountain High...Valley Low album. Mo'Nique stated that the song is one of her favorites.

In 1988, Adams married Troy Mason, and was divorced little more than one year later. Her second marriage, in 1997, was to former NFLplayer Tim Crawford. The couple divorced in August 2004 after seven years. Adams and Crawford had one daughter, Taylor. Adams served as a spokesperson for the FILA Corporation's Operation Rebound, a program that addressed the concern of inner city schoolchildren.