Gladys Knight On Tour
The "Empress of Soul" is back. One of Motown's most iconic acts, Gladys Knight, returns to the big stage in 25 cities across North America for her 2022 tour. Although she's perhaps best known for her original rendition of the R&B classic "I Heard it Through the Grapevine (1967)," Knight has remained in the limelight as one of the all-time greats for the last 60 years. The seven-time Grammy award winner has won across three categories including Pop, R&B and Gospel, and has another 22 nominations spanning across five decades. Over her illustrious career, she has released 10 studio albums, with her debut album Miss Gladys Knight releasing in 1978, and her most recent work Where My Heart Belongs coming out in 2014. In 1996, her band Gladys Knight & the Pips was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Knight was also included on Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Singers of All Time list. Off the stage, Knight has authored two books, including a biography titled Each Line of Pain and Glory: My Life Story, and made various appearances on television and the big screen. Her most recent appearances came when she played herself in Coming 2 America in 2021 and when she wore the bee costume on "The Masked Singer" in 2019.
Gladys Knight in Concert
Gladys Knight was born in Atlanta, Georgia to Merald Knight Sr. and Sarah Elizabeth on May 28, 1944. She has a sister (Brenda) and two brothers (Merald "Bubba" Jr. and David). As a child and into her teens, Knight sang in her local church choir where she refined her Motown chops. She had her first breakthrough into the spotlight at the age of 8 when she won Ted Mack's The Original Amateur Hour contest. Over the next few years, Knight and four of her family members (Bubba, Edward Patten, Langston George, and William Guest) formed a performing group to be called Gladys Knight & the Pips. After a successful run in the local Atlanta music scene, the group received a record deal with Brunswick Records in 1957 and began opening for legends in the music scene and influences on their style such as Sam Cooke. The group's first record to chart was in fact a cover of Johnny Otis' "Every Beat of My Heart," which made it into the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. Knight left the group in 1962 after a string of successful releases such as "Letter Full of Tears" to start a family with her husband Jimmy Newman. However, she returned to the group two years later and went on to critical success over the course of the next five decades.