CeCe Winans: ‘I’ve got to stand for righteousness, no matter what’s popular’

Crammed into the corner of an office piled high with books and records, CeCe Winans sits on a stool and effortlessly belts out truth. It’s an instant reminder of why she is one of the most successful gospel artists of all time. Her NPR Tiny Desk performance has garnered more than 1.5m views on YouTube, but this is one of Winans’ least impressive accolades.

Over the course of her record-breaking career, she has sold more than 19 million records, won 36 GMA Dove awards, six Billboard music awards and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. This year, the 61-year-old received her 18th Grammy, the most ever awarded to a female gospel artist. 

One of ten children in a deeply musical family, CeCe was raised by Grammy-nominated musicians publicly known as Mom and Pop Winans. She began her professional career singing backing vocals for gospel legend Andraé Crouch, aged just 16. But it was a 1984 cover of Joe Cocker’s ‘Up where we belong’ (from the soundtrack to An Officer and a Gentleman), rewritten for a Christian audience and recorded with her brother BeBe, that kickstarted her history-making career. The duo’s 1988 album Heaven became only the second gospel record ever to be certified gold (the first was Aretha Franklin’s Amazing Grace in 1972). Their fourth album Different Lifestyles was the first to go double-platinum. 

In the years since, Winans has continued to collect many more firsts as a solo artist, despite quitting the music industry at the height of her fame for eight years in order to plant a church with her husband. And that tells you more about CeCe Winans than anything else. Having worked in the music industry for more than 50 years, Winans has the easy laugh and peaceful demeanour of someone who knows who she is – and who she is not. “I’m not superwoman,” she tells me, “but I do prioritise.” Those priorities include her marriage (she’s just celebrated her 42nd wedding anniversary), being present for her family and, amazingly for such a global superstar, being home at weekends so she can be in church. “That’s something I’ve lived by.”

Winans’ uncompromising focus on the important rather than the urgent is wisdom that many in the Christian music scene would do well to emulate, if recent scandals are anything to go by. It isn’t easy to keep your integrity when faced with the temptations that come with fame and fortune, she tells me, but it isn’t complicated either. “This is what I tell young people: live a life that’s pleasing to the Father, and He will lead you in all the rest.” 

You grew up in a large, musical family who all loved Jesus, but was there a moment when you knew you wanted to pursue a career in music yourself?

I always loved singing, but I started doing background vocals for Andraé [Crouch] when I was about 16 years old. The Lord just began to open up doors. My brother BeBe and I were a part of a Christian TV show [The PTL Club] and they gave us a song to sing together. Churches saw us on TV, and they were like: “Can those coloured kids come to our church?” Then we started getting offers from record labels. That was the start of BeBe and CeCe Winans. 

You’ve just won your 18th Grammy award, making you the most decorated female gospel singer in history. Did it feel like you were making history at the time? 

That’s a good question. I don’t think anybody has ever asked me that. No, it didn’t feel like that at all. You’re just doing what you do, one day at a time. 

God never meant for me to save the world and lose my family

I can’t speak for everybody, but most artists don’t do what they do for the awards. You want to sell records, of course, but you want to sell records because you want your music to reach people. So, it was just a daily walk: Let me use the gift that God has given me. I continue to pray for God to open the doors He wants to open and to close the doors He wants to close. I look back now, and it blows my mind. That was not the goal, but I’m so grateful.

Did you ever have a specific goal?

A record company certainly has goals, because they want to make profit after investing money in you! As a recording artist, your goal is just to continue to do better. Whoever you are, whatever you’re doing, you always want to improve. But outside of that, it is very organic. It’s fun. I haven’t allowed my past success to stifle me. A lot of times, you try to repeat what you did before, and that can smother your creativity. You’re always evolving, so I’m having fun listening to different sounds and styles right now.

How do you maintain your passion for making music after so many decades? 

Well, music is amazing, and God created that. We cannot take any credit. The angels were singing way before we started! Music never gets old, you know? When it’s good, it’s good. And when it hits you at the right time, it’s refreshing, it’s refilling. That’s the power of music.

Gospel music is good news, and that keeps my passion going. There’s always an encouraging word, there’s always a melody that will bring peace to somebody, and that keeps my fire going. Now, everything that goes along with it, I have to work at: getting on a tour bus, going to airports, travelling – I have no passion for that! I’ve always been a homebody, so that’s always been rough for me, but once I’m in front of a live audience, singing their hearts out, it’s a beautiful thing.

You’re performing at Big Church Festival this month – is it different performing in the UK to the US?

No, people are beautiful everywhere and, over the years, I have realised we are all more alike than we are different. Music can travel over the waters and still touch people and bring unity. The UK has always welcomed me and my family with open arms, and so whenever we get a chance to come back, it’s a pleasure and an honour.

Alongside your music, you also write books, host conferences and run a church with your husband. How do you manage all of that?

First of all, the media has a way of making me look like superwoman, and that would be the furthest thing from the truth. I’m not superwoman, but I do prioritise my peace. That’s got to be first. The older I get, the better I understand that I am called to do what I do, but I’m called to be a wife and a mother – and now a grandmother – first. And so that’s the way I prioritise it. 

I have a whole lot of people helping me do what we do. When my husband and I started [Nashville Life Church in 20212], we were the lead pastors, full-time. During that time, I didn’t travel, I didn’t record anything. I stopped being CeCe Winans, the artist, for about eight years. People asked me: “Aren’t you afraid you’re gonna lose your career?” and I was like: “No, this is where God has called me.” We’re not the lead pastors anymore, and when I was ready to come back into the industry, they welcomed me with open arms. 

I like to keep things simple. There’s only so many hours in a day. Is it something I have to watch constantly? Yes. I need time to be peaceful and healthy and strong, to make sure I get rest and to be at church. It’s important for me to be in those pews and receive the word of God as I pour out all the time. That’s something I’ve lived by. Most of my touring over the last few years has been Wednesday, Thursday, Friday – so I’m able to be at prayer on Saturday morning and at my Sunday service. Then I’m home for a few days to rest and then I’m back out on tour. There’s adjustments being made in order to accomplish all the things that I am part of.

You’ve made clear decisions to prioritise the things that you feel are important. With some of the scandals that we’ve seen in the Christian music industry recently, do you think more Christian artists could learn from this approach? 

Definitely! It’s something I learned. I mean, we just celebrated 42 years of marriage, and there’s no way I would still be married if I hadn’t prioritised my marriage over my ministry. I learned at a very early age that everybody else doesn’t care about your world the way you care about it. God never meant for me to save the world and lose my family – that wasn’t His plan. So, my husband and I always had agreements on how long we would be away from one another. If he had to come out on the road with me, or I had to come home, that’s what we did. 

When kids came along, I didn’t want to be a stranger to [them]. At one point, I took them out of school because I was touring. My husband and I agreed that we would homeschool them for a couple of years and hired somebody to help teach them. 

It’s keeping your priorities straight that will put up safeguards around the things that are most important.

Have there been times when that’s been a challenge for you?

Oh yeah, but never for long. That’s something you pick up pretty quickly. It’s a sacrifice sometimes: you have to be willing to say no to good things in order to keep the most important thing. 

As you look back on the experience you’ve gained as a musician, church leader and author, what would your advice be to young people who are just starting out and want to run their race well?

Well, my advice is simple: my number one priority has always been pleasing God and, man, when that’s your number one priority, it really does knock a lot of things out.

People want something deep, something complicated. It’s not always easy, but it’s not complicated. The Bible says: “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and everything else will be added” [see Matthew 6:33]. 

When you put Him first, He’s obligated to add what He wants to add, to take off what He wants to take off, protect what needs to be protected – and that’s what I’ve seen. That’s why I can’t take the credit for anything. God has been kind to me. He’s been merciful – but my aim has always been to live with integrity. The amount of time I spend on stage is a small percentage of my life, and so I live a life to please Him. How do you treat people? Do you apologise when you’re wrong? Are you cheating on your taxes? Do you humble yourself? Do you live your life in a way that pleases God when nobody else is watching? This is what I tell young people: live a life that’s pleasing to the Father, and He will lead you in all the rest. This will affect all of your decisions – even down to: Is what I’m wearing today pleasing to God? Am I wearing something that represents Him well, or something that would cause a scandal? It’s those simple decisions that you make every day with the goal of pleasing our heavenly Father. He honours that.

I think dying to self is one of the biggest challenges of the Christian life…

You said it. People don’t want to hear “die to self”, but that is what it is. It’s taking up your cross every day, asking the Holy Spirit to teach you how to stay on the straight and narrow.

Does that become harder when you become famous? You’ve got money, people heaping praise on you, giving you awards…

Yeah, of course. I mean, the enemy doesn’t stop because you get to a certain age. He’s always going to come with the thoughts, and the peer pressure never stops, but it’s like anything else – the more you do it, the more muscle you develop in that area. I can identify the voice of the Lord and the voice of the enemy pretty quickly. Or not even the Devil – it’s your flesh. 

Live a life that’s pleasing to the Father, and He will lead you in all the rest

It can be harder, because people don’t like to hear truth these days. The Bible said persecution will come, and persecution makes it harder sometimes, but that’s why it’s called persecution. When people who you think embrace truth are not really embracing it, that doesn’t give me an excuse not to embrace it. I’ve got to stand for righteousness, no matter what’s popular. But when you’re standing on the unchanging word of God, you can do it, even in pressured times. 

Your new album, Hymns, has just debuted at number one on the Billboard Gospel album charts. Tell us about the inspiration behind it.

Well, it wasn’t even supposed to be an album! I went to my team, maybe two years ago now, and said I felt like I needed to do some hymns. Hymns are so encouraging. My life now, at 61 years old, is definitely about the generation coming after me. I want to connect with them, but this new world of creating content – I’m still getting used to that. I’m like: What? You want me to carry around my phone and tell you what I’m eating? Are you kidding me? I can’t do that. There’s no salvation in what I’m eating for breakfast. So, I asked the team if I could just sit at a piano and just sing some hymns, something very simple and stripped down. They said: “Well, if you’re gonna do that, we should just make an album from it.” I’m like: “Hey, that’s up to y’all, if that’s what you want to do.” So that’s what we did! It’s very simple, but hymns are powerful, and for it to be number one after coming out – I’m just blown away. 

There are reports of an increased spiritual openness among Gen Z in both the US and the UK. What would you like to see the Church do to make the most of this missional opportunity?

What I’m seeing is that the younger generation are understanding the beauty of holiness. Jesus has already paid the price. God has done everything He needs to do for us to be victorious and saturate the world with His love and His word. When we understand and step into that authority, we’re going to see God move in ways that we’ve never experienced before. He’s soon to come, and so my prayer is that the Church would just be the Church. We don’t have to worry about the world, we just need to be united and walk in love, because then people will see the perfect picture of Jesus and come to know who He is.  

To hear the full interview listen to Premier Christian Radio at 8pm on Saturday 1 August or download The Profile podcast