Vickie Winans (born Viviane Bowman; October 18, 1953) is an American gospel singer.
Early life
The seventh of twelve children, Winans was born in Michigan to Mattie A. Bowman, a housewife, and Aaron Bowman, who worked at various times as a laborer, contractor, carpenter and mason. She began singing in church – the International Gospel Center – at the age of eight, and as a teenager she sang with a group known as the International Sounds of Deliverance. Her siblings include Beverly Bouldes, Sandi Tyler, Irma Crockett, Annette Tharpe, Aaron Bowman, Jr. (deceased), Carleen Riley, Cathy Williams, Mary Sturdivant, Bryan Bowman, Lorne Bowman, and Tim Bowman.
Personal life
Winans has been married and divorced three times. After high school, she married the late Bishop Ronald E. Brown of Faith Tabernacle Deliverance Temple in Orangeburg, South Carolina. Together they had a son, Mario Brown, now known as Mario Winans. In June 1978, she married Marvin Winans of the gospel group The Winans. With Marvin, she had one son, Marvin Jr. (Coconut). In 1995, Winans and Marvin Sr. divorced after 16 years of marriage. The stress of the divorce caused her to develop ulcers on her esophagus, diabetes and to gain weight. Eventually, Winans regained her health and re-energized her career. At the end of 2003, Winans married businessman Joe McLemore. This marriage lasted just a few years before Vickie divorced him (Joe died in 2018). Vickie lost her mother, Evangelist Mattie Bowman, on December 12, 2006.
Musical career
It was her marriage to Marvin that led Winans to consider a career in music. She was asked to, and joined, Winans Part II, a group that included then in-laws BeBe and CeCe Winans and brother Daniel Winans. However, the group never took off as BeBe and CeCe left to join the PTL Singers of the long-running Christian television show, The PTL Club.
Light Records: 1985–1990
The Winans became the best selling act on their record label, Light Records, and this enabled husband Marvin to secure her a recording contract. Her solo album, Be Encouraged was released in 1987 and became a major gospel hit. The LP included a cover of Dottie Rambo's, "We Shall Behold Him", as well as "First Trumpet Sound," a gospelized remake of Gladys Knight & The Pips' "Midnight Train To Georgia." Be Encouraged netted a Grammy nomination for Best Soul Gospel Performance, Female, a Stellar Award for Album of the Year, and an Excellence Award for Best Female Contemporary Artist.
Her follow-up album, Total Victory was markedly less successful, due in part to the financial floundering of Light Records after its flagship group, The Winans, left to join Quincy Jones' Qwest Records.
MCA Records: 1990–1991
In 1990, Winans signed, not to a gospel recording company but to Geffen Records. Geffen was bought by Universal Records and Winan's contract was shifted to sister label MCA Records. Dealing with a company that hadn't signed her, she found herself being subtly pushed to tone down the Christian message in her music. "They don't tell you, but you get the vibe," she said in 1999. "I don't ever, ever, ever want to be in that predicament again. It's one thing when you just sing a song where you don't use the actual name of Jesus, but it's a whole 'nother thing when you TRY not to use the name. For me, the name of Jesus will never be distasteful in my mouth. He's always the answer".
Her 1991 MCA release was The Lady which included production by R. Kelly, husband Marvin Winans, and her son Mario. The nine-song album was missing the name Jesus and controversially contained a rendition of West Side Story'''s "Somewhere". MCA then sent Winans to that year's Stellar Awards television broadcast with dancers – a move that shocked the conservative Christian community, leading to the Winans having to issue a public apology.
This controversy led to the Gospel community not backing the album, and after also failing to break through on contemporary R&B radio, MCA eventually dropped Winans from their roster. The Lady, also, netted a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album.
Intersound/CGI: 1994–2002
After 3 years without a recording contract, former Word Records executive James Bullard signed Winans to Intersound Records, an Atlanta-based classical recording label, for which he was forming a gospel music division. Her label debut Vickie Winans rose to #10 on the gospel charts, spawning the hits Work It Out and We Shall Behold Him. However, she developed nodes on her vocal cords, causing her to fail to hit all the right notes in her re-recording of We Shall Behold Him.