Gladys Maria Knight was born May 28, 1944 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Gladys began performing gospel music at age four...

Gladys Maria Knight was born May 28, 1944 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.  Gladys 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. At the ripe old age of 7 in 1952 she entered and won the Ted Mack Original Amateur Hour, an American TV talent show.  The next year, she, her brother Merald, sister Brenda, and cousins William and Eleanor Guest formed a group called The Pips. They took the name from another of their cousins, James "Pip" Woods. By 1959 the line-up had changed with Brenda & Eleanor leaving, replaced by Gladys’s cousin Edward Patten and friend Langston George. The group was renamed Gladys Knight & The Pips, and following George's departure in 1962, the classic line-up was in place.
The group debuted their first album in 1960, when Gladys was just sixteen. Singing lead and with 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,"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 #1 smash hit & Grammy Award winning  "Midnight Train to Georgia" established Gladys Knight and The Pips as the premiere pop/R&B vocal ensemble in the world. Gladys enjoyed another #1 hit in 1985 when she teamed with Stevie Wonder, Elton John and Dionne Warwick on "That's What Friends are For."
Gladys Knight’s career has endured for over 50 years. She is an eight-time Grammy winner and has branched out into many areas of the entertainment field.
Known as the "Empress of Soul," a longtime Las Vegas resident, she returned to the Strip this past year to the famed Tropicana Hotel for a special engagement that ran in the newly named Gladys Knight Theatre, making her the first African- American performer to have a venue named after her in Las Vegas. Last October she was honoured with the "Legend Award" at the 2011 Soul Train Awards. She is due to release a new album soon featuring the hit "I Who Have Nothing."
2012 brought Gladys a new challenge, that of dancer. She joined the cast of America’s "Dancing with the Stars” though was eliminated from the competition after 4 weeks. She returned in mid May for the show’s finale where she sang live.
Last year saw Gladys both honouring and being honoured, first at a Michael Jackson tribute concert, and then at the 2011 Soul Train Awards. At the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, Gladys joined such performers as Jennifer Hudson, Beyonce, and Smokey Robinson in a tribute to the legendary King of Pop in a concert event called "Michael Forever." Following that, she was given a "Legend Award" alongside fellow recipients Earth, Wind & Fire.
A tireless humanitarian, she is an iconic supporter of the Boys & Girls Club of America. She just recently donated a Randy Jackson-produced song, "The Dream," to motivate youths to full-fill their dreams, raise awareness of the need for BGCA, as well as create a way to support the non-profit group through iTunes purchases.
Last May, Gladys – who is famously known for her Grammy-winning hit "Midnight Train to Georgia" – joined the American railway company Amtrak to host the 4th annual National Train Day in Washington, DC's famed Union Station. As the national spokesperson, she helped commemorate the 142nd anniversary of the transcontinental railroad's inception.
In February 2011, Gladys reunited with Elton John, Dionne Warwick, and Stevie Wonder for the first time in 25 years for the anniversary of their historic "That's What Friends Are For" performance benefiting AIDS research. In addition to her constant touring, last November she appeared in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. She has just finished a highly successful tour across the UK, performing at packed arenas that included a sold-out performance at Wembley Stadium.
Mid 2010 marked the debut of the Gladys Knight Jewellery Collection. A portion of the sales from the Collection goes directly back to the Kumasi Women's Cooperative in Ghana, an organization that supplies some of the beads.
Gladys’s last album, Before Me, paid homage to the great legends of song – Ella, Duke, Billie, Lena – as well as the many artists who served as Knight's friends, mentors, colleagues and inspiration throughout her career. Before Me features such timeless material as Holiday's "God Bless the Child," Horne's "Stormy Weather," and Ellington's "Come Sunday". She is currently working on a new album with producer Randy Jackson, with whom she previously collaborated with on her Grammy-winning album, "At Last."
Adding to her already impressive collection, Gladys won another Grammy for her duet with the late Ray Charles on his posthumous album Genius Loves Company (2005). The duo won for Best Gospel Performance for their duet "Heaven Help Us All." Knight's solo album At Last also won a Grammy for Best Traditional R&B Vocal Album in 2002, and during the televised opening ceremonies kicking off the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, she performed the album's "This is Our Time."
A tireless performer who still wows audiences around the country and the world, Knight also finds the time to make forays into film and television. Most recently, she appeared in the Tyler Perry film I CAN DO BAD ALL BY MYSELF, and in a cameo on the Emmy- winning TV comedy "30 Rock."
Her film and television credits include TV’s "Las Vegas,",  "JAG”  and the talent competitions "American Juniors" and "Duets." She has also appeared as a guest judge on "American Idol," and has performed in the show's always star-studded finale. Gladys also enjoyed a critically-acclaimed four-year run performing nightly at the famed Flamingo Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, which was hailed "the number-one show on the Strip" by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, in the early 2000s.
All told, Knight has recorded more than 38 albums over the years, including four solo albums during the past decade: "Good Woman" (1991); "Just for You" (1994); the inspirational "Many Different Roads" (1999); and "At Last" (2001).
Her involvement in other creative undertakings and humanitarian activities has been extensive, and has brought her honours from industry and community alike. In 1986, she produced and starred in the Award- winning TV special "Sisters in the Name of Love," co-starring Dionne Warwick and Patti LaBelle. That same year, she showcased her acting ability when she co-starred with Flip Wilson in the TV comedy "Charlie & Co." Other acting roles followed on such TV shows as "Benson," "The Jefferson's" and "New York Undercover," and in such television films as "Pipe Dreams," "An Enemy Among Us" and "Desperado." She recorded the title theme for the James Bond movie "License to Kill" (1989). In 1999, she completed a starring run on Broadway in the smash musical hit "Smokey Joe's Café."
In 1995, Gladys 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. She 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.
A humanitarian and philanthropist, Knight has devoted to various worthy causes, including the American Diabetes Association – for which she is a national spokesperson, the American Cancer Society and the Minority AIDS Project among others. She has been honoured by numerous organizations as well, including the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the American Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).
Today, Knight helps oversee her busy career from the Las Vegas headquarters of Shakeji, Inc., her personal entertainment corporation. She is a mother, great-grandmother, performer and a businesswoman with a spiritual outlook on her life. Her faith in God has been the driving force behind all of Knight's endeavours, guiding her through her many successes.