In the summer of 1993 a young unknown gospel musician from Fort Worth, Texas, released – to little initial fanfare – his self-titled debut album, Kirk Franklin & The Family. Wildly accepted and embraced almost immediately by the masses, it went on to spend 100 weeks at the top of Billboard magazine’s gospel charts, while also crossing over to the R&B side, and becoming in the process the first gospel album ever to sell over a million units.

Franklin ’s meteoric rise to the apex of gospel music’s upper ranks may appear to have been quick, but it was far from glamorous. Abandoned as an infant by his biological mother and never knowing his father, Franklin was raised by his Aunt Gertrude, a deeply religious woman who paid for his piano lessons by collecting aluminum cans when Franklin was only four years old. Though young Franklin possessed phenomenal prodigious musical gifts, surely Aunt Gertrude had no idea that this seed well sown into the life of a hyper young boy full of potential would impact the world on such a large scale.

To say that Kirk Franklin has been instrumental in changing the landscape of contemporary gospel music would be a gross understatement. Since his 1993 debut, Franklin has gone on to win three Grammy’s, 33 Stellar and nine Dove Awards. Now, after more than a decade on the charts, the biggest-selling contemporary gospel artist in Soundscan history is poised once again to make a resounding debut –– this time as an entrepreneur and head of his own entertainment venture: Fo Yo Soul Entertainment, Inc.

Information from the artist's site

Musicians

• Kirk Franklin: lead vocals, vocals

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