http://www.npgonlineltd.c...ynews.html



Updated with "insights" on Yolanda Adams and an HBO special...

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Update: The recent commets on http://www.npgonlineltd.c...ynews.html about Yolanda Adams are rather old:



http://www.prince.org/new....html?5240



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More From Electronic Urban Report on Prince Press Conference



"I was talking to a program director and said 'Do you love Chaka Khan?' He said 'Oh, I love Chaka Khan.' But he didn't play any of her songs. I asked him who his favorite singer was. He said Yolanda Adams. (He said) he likes her because she was inspirational and made him feel good. Then I asked him was she on his playlist and he said no. I asked him why and then I couldn't get a straight answer."



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Interestingly, Yolanda Adams was mentioned much earlier on prince.org in connection with Jam & Lewis:



http://www.prince.org/new....html?4110



The article isn't available at the Star Tribune server anymore, here are the relevant excerpts:



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Published Sunday, March 5, 2000



Gospel according to Yolanda Adams is powerful
Jon Bream / Star Tribune



[...]



"She takes gospel through jazz and all kinds of different places you seldom hear," said Twin Cities producer/songwriter Terry Lewis, who, with his partner, Jimmy Jam, worked on three numbers on Adams' Grammy-nominated "Mountain High ... Valley Low."



[...]



Adams feels she has long had the vocal potential to reach a larger audience, but gospel labels don't have the wherewithal that secular ones do. In other words, Elektra offered a budget so Adams "could get a Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and a Keith Thomas to produce on the same album instead of having to decide on which one can I use."



Thomas, known for his work with Vanessa Williams, Wynonna Judd and 98 Degrees, did one song. Jam and Lewis, known for collaborating with Janet Jackson and Mary J. Blige, spent three weeks working with Adams in the Twin Cities, where she has been singing occasionally at a friend's church, Trinity Church of God and Christ in St. Paul, since 1990.



"We wanted her to do things she hadn't done but still keep the Word in it," Lewis said. "We wanted to give it some R&B flavor so it would get played on some mainstream radio stations."



Writing with Adams, Jam and Lewis came up with the contemporary soul ballad "Open My Heart" as well as the feel-good "Already Alright," about someone dealing with cancer.



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