Candi Staton

小Candi Staton 出生美国阿拉巴马州原名Canzetta Maria Staton的，年幼时期便加入一组福音乐团The Jewell Gospel，1953－1963年间曾录制多首作品，1968年开始Candi展开个人音乐事业，表现南方灵魂乐曲动人之美，同时赢得南方灵魂第一夫人之美誉，并获葛莱美奖提名肯定。70年代开始发光发热，进入新世纪来临，Candi仍秉持一股歌唱热忱，魅力十足的将她灵式嗓音，轻而易举掳获广大乐迷的心，从早期黑人专辑到流行、福音、舞曲播放等各排行榜中，都可见到Candi曼妙“声”影。

by Bill Carpenter

Born March 13, 1940, in Hanceville, AL, Candi Stanton sang with the Jewell Gospel Trio as a teenager. They toured the traditional gospel circuit in the 1950s with the Soul Stirrers, C.L. Franklin, and Mahalia Jackson. They recorded several sides for Nashboro, Apollo, and Savoy Records between 1953 and 1963. In 1968 Staton launched solo career as a Southern soul stylist, garnering 16 R&B hits for Rick Halls legendary Fame Studios and gaining the title of First Lady of Southern Soul for her Grammy-nominated R&B renditions of the country tunes Stand by Your Man and In the Ghetto. In 1975 Staton saw Southern soul falling out of fashion and began collaborating with producer Dave Crawford, who propelled her into a disco diva with dance songs such as Young Hearts Run Free and Victim. In 1982 Staton had been disgruntled with Warner Brothers passing interest in her career and a career slump, so she returned to the gospel field. She and her husband, John Sussewell (drummer for Ashford & Simpson), founded Beracah Ministries in Atlanta with help from Jim and Tammy Bakkers PTL Ministries. She has since recorded eight popular gospel albums, two of which have won Grammy nominations. In 1992 she was back in the pop mainstream with a Top Ten British hit, You Got the Love, a club-styled dance hit that sold two million copies. Since joining Intersound Records in 1995, Staton has begun to sing some of her old R&B hits again and recorded some new message-oriented pop songs while gaining a new title, the Sweetheart of Soul. In 2000, she released her 11th album, Heres a Blessing. Following the release of a well-received compilation of her Fame-era material (2004s Candi Staton), Staton returned to secular music in the form of 2006s His Hands.