LAS VEGAS, Nev. — For the second consecutive year, singer Gladys Knight has won a Grammy Award, this time for an album she recorded with the Saints Unified Voices, a choir of more than 100 Church members she formed in her home city of Las Vegas, Nev.
The award, the recording industry's highest accolade, was presented Feb. 8, in Los Angeles, Calif. It was given in the "Best Gospel Choir Album" category for the choir's debut CD "One Voice," released in January 2005. The album is a collection of inspirational songs in diverse arrangements, including some standard tunes familiar to Latter-day Saints, such as "Come, Come, Ye Saints" and "I Am a Child of God." It has remained in Billboard magazine's Top 40 Gospel Albums chart for a year, after garnering the magazine's No. 1 Hot Shot Debut position the week of January 13, 2005, and landing at No. 9 on the Gospel chart.
It was the seventh career Grammy for Sister Knight-McDowell (her married name). Last year, she shared Grammy honors with the late Ray Charles, soul music veteran, for a song they recorded together. He was given the award posthumously.
A performer since childhood, Gladys Knight appeared on national television at age 8 and went on to achieve popularity in the 1950s, '60s and '70s with her recording group Gladys Knight and the Pips, eventually being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame.
Sister Knight was baptized Aug. 11, 1997, in Las Vegas, her son, Jimmy, and daughter, Kenya, having previously joined the Church. Since then, she has performed with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and other artists at two birthday tributes to President Gordon B. Hinckley, one when he was 90 and the other last year when he turned 95.
She organized the all-volunteer Saints Unified Voices in 2002 at the behest of her stake president for a fireside. The group's fame spread, and it has now performed at numerous firesides at which Sister Knight-McDowell, other family members and friends share their testimonies of the restored gospel.
She and the choir performed in the Salt Lake Tabernacle on June 8, 2003, at an event sponsored by the Genesis group to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the revelation extending the priesthood to all worthy males. — R. Scott Lloyd