Benjamin “BeBe” Winans, a six-time Grammy Award winner, is the seventh child and youngest male of the Detroit-based, first-family of gospel music, The Winans. BeBe is best known as an inspirational R&B vocalist and songwriter who, along with his musical partner and sister CeCe Winans, are the first true Christian crossover artists to hit the mainstream.
While BeBe and CeCe were in high school, four of their elder brothers formed the successful gospel group The Winans. Initially known as The Winans Part II, BeBe and CeCe first appeared in the public eye when they debuted in 1982 as part of the singing group The PTL Singers on the Christian television show The PTL Club. They were introduced by Jim Bakker and recorded their first album Lord Lift Us Up as a duo for PTL Records.
BeBe and CeCe left the PTL Singers in 1987 to pursue a musical career, and that same year, Sparrow Records offered the two siblings a Gospel recording contract. Their mainstream debut release was the self-titled album BeBe & CeCe Winans. It was produced by Keith Thomas, who would go on to produce Amy Grant and Vanessa L. Williams. The debut record gave them their first R&B hit, “I.O.U. Me,” which topped R&B and inspirational charts and generated Grammy nominations and Dove and Stellar Awards.
They were one of the first African American artists to receive significant airplay on contemporary Christian music radio stations and the second African American artists to receive the Dove Award in the Group of the Year category.
With the release of their second LP, Heaven, they remained steadily popular with R&B audiences, spawning 3 R&B hit singles including two No. 1 singles. In 1988, the pair became the first Gospel artists to see their album reach No. 1 on the Billboard sales charts. The title track also reached No. 12 on the Billboard R&B singles chart. Other hits from the album included “Lost Without You” and “Celebrate New Life,” one of two album tracks featuring superstar and family friend Whitney Houston. The album was the first album to reach the R&B, Pop, Gospel, and Christian charts simultaneously.
The release of their 1991 album Different Lifestyles brought their biggest success to date. It featured the singles “Addictive Love” and a cover of The Staple Singers’ “I’ll Take You There” featuring Mavis Staples. Both singles topped the R&B chart. Rapper MC Hammer was featured on the single “The Blood” at the height of his career and, in 1992, the song peaked at No. 8 on Billboard’s Christian Adult Contemporary chart.
In 1994, they released their studio album Relationships, featuring the notable singles “If Anything Ever Happened To You,” “Love of My Life,” and “Stay With Me.” This album conveyed a more personal approach, in CeCe’s words: “A lot of people think we’re supposed to be perfect, but we’re people too, we go through hurt [and] pain. We get songs through experiences and as we reveal these things, people are touched.”
BeBe went on to pursue a solo career in 1997, with the release of his self-titled debut album. BeBe recorded an additional 6 six albums: Love & Freedom, Live and Up Close, My Christmas Prayer, Dream, Cherch, America, America, and Need You.
In 2009, BeBe & CeCe released their first album in more than 15 years: Still. Premiering 12 new songs, the album’s lead single was “Close to You.” The album won two Grammy Awards: Best Gospel Performance (the song “Grace”) and Best Gospel R&B Album.
Concurrent to his recording career, BeBe has written and produced for many other artists including Whitney Houston on the soundtrack to the iconic movie The Bodyguard, Eric Clapton, Stevie Wonder, David Foster, Gladys Knight, Anita Baker, Bobby Brown, The Clark Sisters and his younger sisters Angie and Debbie Winans.
As a recording duo, BeBe and CeCe Winans’ have won three Grammy Awards, nine Dove Awards, two NAACP Image awards, two Soul Train Music Awards, numerous Stellar Awards, three Gold albums, and two Platinum albums. BeBe & CeCe Winans names were added to the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2011 and the duo was inducted into the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame in 2022.
As a solo artist, BeBe is a three-time Grammy Winner, ten-time Dove Award winner, and has won six Stellar, four NAACP, a Soul Train Music, and the NAACP Theatre Award for ‘Best Playwright’ for his musical Born For This. He continues to explore his talents as an actor, writer, and producer for theater, film, and television.
