`Licence To Kill` singer Gladys Knight plans South Africa concert tour

She’s recognised as one of the greatest female singers of all time, Sponono Entertainment will present The Gladys Knight Tour in Association with SABC3 and Metro FM, this multiple Grammy Award winner Gladys Knight will be performing five shows in the country in October - reports ArtZone.

Very few singers over the last 50 years have matched Gladys Knight’s unassailable artistry. This seven-time Grammy winner has enjoyed No 1 hits in pop, R&B and adult contemporary.

Georgia born, Knight began performing gospel music at age four in the Mount Mariah Baptist Church and sang as a guest soloist with the Morris Brown College Choir. Three years later, she won the grand prize on television’s “Ted Mack’s Amateur Hour” and the following year, she, along with her brother Bubba, her sister Brenda and her cousins William and Elenor Guest, formed The Pips. In 1959, Brenda and Elenor left the group, replaced by cousin Edward Patten and friend Langston George. The group was renamed Gladys Knight & The Pips.

The group debuted their first album in 1960, when Knight was just 16. With Knight singing lead and The Pips providing lush harmonies and graceful choreography, the group went on to achieve icon status, having recorded some of the most memorable songs of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Top 20 hits like “Every Beat of My Heart”, “Letter Full of Tears”, “I Heard it Through the Grapevine” and “If I Were Your Woman” set the stage for an amazing run in the mid-1970s, with Top 10 gold-certified singles like “Neither One of Us (Wants to be the First to Say Goodbye)”, “I’ve Got to Use My Imagination”, “Best Thing to Ever Happen to Me” and the No 1 smash “Midnight Train to Georgia” established Gladys Knight and The Pips as the premiere pop/R&B vocal ensemble in the world.

Knight was ranked No 18 in the 2005 Guinness Book of World Records' list of the most successful female musical artists of all time. Knight has recorded more than 40 albums over the years. Knight enjoyed another No 1 hit in 1985 when she teamed with Stevie Wonder, Elton John and Dionne Warwick on “That’s What Friends are For”. She also recorded the title theme for the James Bond movie “License to Kill”.

She has performed on television appearing in “Benson”, “The Jefferson’s” and “New York Undercover”. In 1999 she completed a starring run on Broadway in the smash musical hit “Smokey Joe’s Café”.

In 1995 Knight earned her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and the next year, Gladys Knight & The Pips were inducted into the Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall of Fame. Knight published an autobiography “Between Each Line of Pain and Glory” (a line taken from her million selling recording “Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me”) in 1997, and the next year, she and The Pips were presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame.

Gladys Knight kicks off her South African tour at the Coca Cola Dome in Johannesburg on October 26. She performs at the Superbowl at Sun City on October 27; at the ICC Arena in Durban on October 28 and at the Grand West in Cape Town on October 30 and 31. All the concerts are seating only. Booking is at Computicket.

Johannesburg
The Coca-Cola Dome
26 October 2007

Sun City
Superbowl
27 October 2007

Durban
ICC Durban Arena
28 October 2007

Cape Town
The Grand Arena at Grand West
30 and 31 October 2007

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