Music
BeBe Winans
born 1962 · singer, songwriter, producer
Detroit-born gospel and R&B singer, half of the duo BeBe & CeCe Winans, and a close friend of Whitney Houston.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan
age 64- Birth name
- Benjamin Winans
- Also known as
- Benjamin Winans · BeBe & CeCe Winans
- Detroit years
- 1962–1980s
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Benjamin "BeBe" Winans grew up in Detroit, the seventh of David and Delores Winans's ten children, singing in church with his siblings. As young adults he and his sister CeCe auditioned as background singers for Jim Bakker's television show The PTL Club and moved to its campus in South Carolina, where they stayed about five years and recorded their first album, Lord Lift Us Up. Leaving PTL, the duo recorded five albums including BeBe & CeCe Winans, Heaven and Different Lifestyles, with crossover singles that reached R&B radio. BeBe won his first Grammy in 1989 for "Abundant Life", recorded on his brother Ronald's Family & Friends Choir album, and later released solo albums and worked on stage and television, including as a judge on BET's Sunday Best. A close friend of Whitney Houston, he sang at her funeral and wrote the memoir The Whitney I Knew (2012).
Highlights
- Half of BeBe & CeCe Winans
- First Grammy for "Abundant Life" (1989)
- Nine solo albums and seven with CeCe
- Judge on BET's Sunday Best
- Memoir The Whitney I Knew (2012)