Yolanda Adams

Yolanda Adams quit her teaching job in the 1980s and set out on a journey to spread the good word through danceable Gospel music. Borrowing heavily from R&B tradition, she slapped a modern groove on the old styles and, along with a number of like-minded contemporaries, revitalized a lagging Christian music scene in the process. In a powerfully emotive voice, she can tear it up on a chipper Whitney Houston-like pop number and, with obviously deep devotion, keep it real on somber, synth-heavy traditionals. By her twentieth year in the music biz, Adams had racked up 20 major accolades, from BETs to AMAs to Grammys, and showed no signs of slowing down. In fact, to mark that two-decade anniversary, she left Atlantic and signed with Columbia, launching a new era in bold RnB from a humble diva.