Gladys Knight, widely known as the “Empress of Soul,” is bringing her decades of music to Utah.
Gladys Knight will perform in Utah
Knight, a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and seven-time Grammy winner, will perform at Salt Lake City’s Eccles Theater on April 8. Tickets go on sale to the general public Friday at 10 a.m. MST and can be purchased via the Live at the Eccles website.
A recent concert review from a show in Tampa, Florida, indicates that Knight is performing a wide range of hits — and that at 78, her voice is as powerful as ever. In his review for Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, Josh Bradley wrote that Knight’s dynamic end to Tamela Mann’s “Take Me to the King” could shake “even the deadliest of sinners.”
“The mighty Empress of Soul wasn’t lip-synching for a second,” Bradley wrote. “Even the longest notes — often ruined by premature applause — was all Gladys, and she even proved it by — probably unintentionally — not singing directly into the mic for seconds at a time, and allowing her timeless vocals to cut out from time to time.”
Gladys Knight career highlights
Knight was born in Atlanta and rose to fame as the lead singer of Gladys Knight & the Pips, later establishing herself as a popular solo artist. Knight has two No. 1 Billboard singles, “Midnight Train to Georgia” and “That’s What Friends Are For,” which she recorded in 1986 with Elton John, Stevie Wonder and Dionne Warwick — along with 11 No. 1 R&B singles and six No. 1 R&B albums, the Deseret News reported. Knight and the Pips were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.
Last year, Knight was one of five artists celebrated during the 45th Kennedy Center Honors. For the part of the program honoring Knight’s contributions to and influences on American culture, country star Garth Brooks performed Knight’s monster hit “Midnight Train to Georgia” — accompanied by The Pips, the Deseret News reported. A year earlier, Knight had honored and brought Brooks to tears during the 43rd Kennedy Center Honors, performing his hit song We Shall Be Free.”
“Gladys Knight is not only the Empress of Soul, she’s the heart and soul of soul,” Brooks said in a statement shared on his website last year. “When she sang ‘We Shall Be Free’ ... I couldn’t stop smiling and crying. And when they asked me to pay tribute to her, I couldn’t say ‘yes’ fast enough.”