CeCe Winans

CeCe Winans has been married to Alvin Love II since June 23, 1984. They have two children, Ashley Rose Love and Alvin Love III. The couple became the founding pastors of Nashville Life Church in Nashville in 2012.

Winans was a close friend of Whitney Houston and the godmother of Houston's daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown. Winans performed "Don't Cry for Me" and "Jesus Loves Me" at Houston's funeral in 2012.

Winans began performing with her older brother BeBe Winans after the two appeared together on the Christian television program The PTL Club in Charlotte, North Carolina. Their duet version of "Up Where We Belong," adapted with Christian lyrics, received a positive response and led to the formation of BeBe & CeCe Winans.

The duo released Lord Lift Us Up in 1984, followed by albums including BeBe & CeCe Winans, Heaven, and Different Lifestyles. They achieved crossover success in gospel and R&B, releasing nine Gold and Platinum recordings. Different Lifestyles became the first gospel album by gospel artists to sell more than one million units.

Winans launched her solo career with Alone in His Presence in 1995. The album became only the third album by a gospel artist to sell more than one million units and earned her a Grammy Award and two Dove Awards. Her 1998 album Everlasting Love was Gold-certified and included her highest-charting solo singles, "Well Alright" and "Slippin'."

Her subsequent releases included His Gift, Alabaster Box, CeCe Winans, Throne Room, Purified, and Thy Kingdom Come. She also recorded "Count on Me" with Whitney Houston for the Waiting to Exhale soundtrack. The song was certified Gold in the United States and reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100.

Winans founded the record company PureSprings Gospel in 1999. She later released Let Them Fall in Love in 2017, the live worship album Believe for It in 2021, and More Than This in 2024. Believe for It won three Grammy Awards, while More Than This reached number one on the Billboard Top Gospel Albums and Top Christian Albums charts.

Winans has received 18 Grammy Awards, along with numerous Dove Awards, Stellar Awards, NAACP Image Awards, and Billboard Music Awards. She has stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the Music City Walk of Fame, and she was one of the inaugural inductees into the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame.

From 2012 to 2014, Winans served as a judge on BET's gospel singing competition Sunday Best alongside BeBe Winans. Her television credits also include appearances in Martin, Living Single, 7th Heaven, Doc, and CeCe's Place.

Winans has written On A Positive Note, Throne Room: Ushered Into the Presence of God, Always Sisters: Becoming the Princess You Were Created to Be, and Believe For It: Passing on Faith to the Next Generation.