Gladys Maria Knight dubbed the “Empress of Soul” is an American singer-songwriter, actress, businesswoman, humanitarian, and author. She was raised in a sound Christian home, and both of her parents were singers in the Wings Over Jordan Gospel Choir. She is currently ranked number eighteen in the 2005 Guinness Book of World Records’ list of the most successful female musical artists of all time, and in 1995, she was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles. She also has No. 1 hits in Pop, Gospel, R&B, and Adult Contemporary genres, and has triumphed in film, television and live performance.
On Thursday, 7 December 2017, at 8:00 pm MDT, Gladys Knight will appear in concert at Southern Utah University in Cedar City, Utah, in the America First Event Center, formerly the Centrum Arena. The seven-time Grammy Award winner (four as a solo artist and three with the Pips) will be performing some of her greatest hits as well as holiday favorites.
Mindy Benson, Southern Utah University’s Vice President for Alumni and Community Relations, commented, “We are excited to bring Gladys Knight to Southern Utah. Her music is iconic, and combined with holiday favorites we are confident this will be a fantastic show.”
As a humanitarian and philanthropist, Gladys is devoted to various worthy causes, including being a national spokeswoman for the American Diabetes Association. She is also actively involved with the American Cancer Society, the Minority Aids Project, amFAR and Crisis Intervention, and The Boys and Girls Club. She has been honored by organizations including the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Congress of Racial Equality and B’Nai Brith. And, she recently received BET’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
In 2002, Gladys formed the Saints Unified Voices, or, as she likes to call it, the SUV Choir in Las Vegas. The group, a multi-cultural choir that predominately shares the rich African American heritage of music along with music from other cultures, performs gospel music in free concerts held in LDS churches and on television and records music as well.
Gladys Knight and her husband, William McDowell, along with various other members of the family, oversee her busy career from the Las Vegas headquarters of Shakeji Inc., her personal entertainment corporation. She is a wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, performer, restaurateur and businesswoman who attributes her success in life to her faith in God.
