Faith and family factor in heavily to the outlook and craft of Middle Tennessean siblings and gospel superstars BeBe and CeCe Winans. Those influences can be found on their newest collaborative album, Still, which is nominated for best contemporary R&B gospel album. Album track “Grace” is up for best gospel performance.
I think the most successful person is the person who is comfortable in their own skin. (BeBe)
(Success) is having peace in your life, where you’ve kind of got everything balanced, because you soon learn as a person that fame, Grammys, riches … none of those things on the outside can bring you true success. (CeCe)
My songs are bookmarks for me. Where I was, what I was going through, what I was dreaming to reach. This particular song, “Grace,” is a song that I’m very appreciative of. God’s grace and his goodness have kept me going. It just speaks the sentiments of my heart. (BeBe)
I found out a long time ago that music is very powerful. It has the power to uplift as well as the power to bring down. I’ve been privileged to sing uplifting music all of my life, and I’ve seen the power of that in people’s lives. (CeCe)
My father did every job that he could imagine to raise 10 children, but he was a barber by trade. One day, as I was getting my hair cut, he swiveled the chair around and told me, “You have everything inside of you that you need to succeed. Don’t wait on anyone else to hand it to you.” And he turned the chair around and cut my hair. That was an everlasting moment for me. (BeBe)
That’s what people need: to be encouraged, not falsely, but told the truth, and to understand that your destiny is in your hands. (BeBe)
You always see somebody who sings higher, or stronger, or bigger. I remember, I think it was my older brother, Marvin, told me, “Just be who you are. Be the best you can be, and never worry about anybody else.” That’s been my piece of advice for everybody I run into. My first piece of advice is to have God in your life, and my second is to just be who you are. (CeCe)
No one can beat me being CeCe. (CeCe)
If you don’t know who you are now, you truly won’t know who you are when success comes, and everybody else, managers and agents, are in your life. (BeBe)
I never wanted to sing out front. When you see the other stories of the Beyonces and so many people who wanted to (sing) from when they were a kid, and were determined to be stars, that’s not a part of my story. I was very comfortable singing in the background, in choir and at home with my family. (CeCe)
Singing out front, I think I’ve embraced it at this point in my life (laughs), but I can pinpoint the time of knowing around (age 8 or 9) that it was something that was divine. Something that was spectacular. Not that my voice was so spectacular, because I hear better voices every day, but that I had something that I needed to share with the world. (CeCe)
I had some friends over to the house the other week, and they were going through the cabinets where I keep a lot of trophies, and they were saying, “You need more room!” We laughed about it, but then came the question, “What award are you most proud of?” I reached in the back. There is an award that is my most important achievement, and it is an award given by an association to fathers who really understand the meaning of being a father. … When I received that one, it went above the Grammys. It went above every award that can be presented to me. (BeBe)
One of the greatest moments to me in my whole career is when I received my first Grammy. Coming from a family where there’s enough of us to have an awards show at home … we grew up with that, and then to actually go and receive one, I was like, “What? I get to have a speech for real?” I’ll never forget my first Grammy. (CeCe)
article courtesy of TheBelleReport.com
