If you grew up on gospel radio, you already know the voice before you know the name. BeBe Winans (born Benjamin Glenn Winans on September 17, 1962, in Detroit, Michigan) is an American gospel and R&B singer, songwriter, and producer. He is the youngest son among the ten children of gospel’s “first family,” the Winans, and the male half of the pioneering duo BeBe & CeCe Winans, formed with his sister CeCe Winans. Across four decades, six Grammy Awards, ten Dove Awards, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, BeBe helped build the bridge between the Black church and mainstream radio, and he’s still releasing new music today.
At a Glance
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Full name | Benjamin Glenn Winans |
| Born | September 17, 1962, Detroit, Michigan, USA |
| Age | 63 (as of 2026) |
| Nationality | American |
| Spouse | Formerly married to Debra Denise Winans (divorced) |
| Children | Miya D. Winans and Benjamin Winans Jr. |
| Parents | David “Pop” Winans Sr. (1934–2009); Delores “Mom” Winans (b. 1936) |
| Siblings | Nine, including CeCe, Marvin, Carvin, Ronald, Michael, Daniel, David Jr., Angie, and Debbie Winans |
| High school | Mumford High School, Detroit |
| Musical training | No conservatory background documented; developed his voice singing in his family’s church choir |
| Genre(s) | Gospel, Contemporary R&B, Urban Contemporary Gospel |
| Occupation | Singer, songwriter, producer, actor, author |
| Years active | 1982–present |
| Record labels | PTL, Sparrow/Capitol, Atlantic, Motown, Still Waters/Hidden Beach, The Movement Group |
| Associated acts | BeBe & CeCe Winans, the Winans family, 3 Winans Brothers, Artists United for Haiti |
| Church background | Raised in the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) tradition |
| Albums | Seven with CeCe; roughly seven solo studio albums |
| Notable songs | “In Harm’s Way,” “I Have a Dream,” “Close to You,” “Father in Heaven (Right Now)” |
| Awards | 6 Grammy Awards, 10 Dove Awards (solo), 6 Stellar Awards (solo), 4 NAACP Image Awards |
| Net worth | ~$4 million–$4.5 million (est., unverified) |
Early Life and Family Background
Benjamin “BeBe” Winans was born the seventh of ten children to David “Pop” Winans Sr. and Delores “Mom” Winans, both COGIC gospel singers who raised their kids on nothing but sacred music. Money was tight. Pop worked as a car salesman, a taxi driver, a janitor, and a barber to keep the family fed, and every one of those ten kids ended up singing.
[IMAGE: The Winans family posing together in Detroit]
BeBe and his siblings started out in the choir at Mount Zion Church of God in Christ in Detroit, standing next to their parents, who sang in the same choir. Four of his older brothers, Ronald, Carvin, Marvin, and Michael, formed the pioneering gospel quartet The Winans while BeBe was still in high school. Watching his brothers get signed by gospel legend Andrae Crouch showed BeBe, early, that this family’s sound could travel past the church walls.
BeBe and his younger sister CeCe were close from the start. They shared a locker at Mumford High School, and by the early 1980s, they were already singing together at home. That closeness became the foundation of the most successful duo in gospel music history.
Musical Beginnings and Calling
In 1982, BeBe and CeCe traveled to North Carolina to audition for televangelist Jim Bakker’s Christian program, The PTL Club. They got the job, joining the show’s PTL Singers as its only two Black members. For roughly five years, the siblings sang on live television every week, building an audience long before they had a record deal.
That platform led to their first single and album, both titled “Lord Lift Us Up,” released on the PTL label in 1984. It wasn’t a hit outside gospel circles, but it proved something the siblings already suspected: their blended voices had a sound nobody else in Christian music had.
Career Journey
BeBe and CeCe left PTL in 1987 and signed with Sparrow Records, releasing the self-titled album BeBe & CeCe Winans the same year. Produced by Keith Thomas, the record gave them their first real crossover hit, “I.O.U. Me,” which topped both R&B and inspirational charts and pulled in Grammy nominations, a Dove Award, and a Stellar Award for New Artist.
The hits kept coming. Heaven (1988) and Different Lifestyles (1991) built their reputation as the sound gospel radio and secular R&B stations could both play. Different Lifestyles won them a Grammy for Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album. By 1994’s Relationships, CeCe described the shift in their writing plainly: they’d stopped trying to sound perfect and started writing from their own hurt.
In 1995, BeBe and CeCe parted ways to build solo careers. It wasn’t a rupture. It was two artists with two different sounds who needed room to grow. BeBe released his self-titled solo debut in 1997, landing on the Hot 100 with the single “In Harm’s Way.” His 2000 follow-up, Love & Freedom, cracked the Top 30 of the Billboard 200, proof that his solo voice could carry a record on its own.
[IMAGE: BeBe Winans performing solo on stage]
Behind the scenes, BeBe became one of gospel’s most in-demand collaborators. He wrote and produced for Whitney Houston on The Bodyguard soundtrack, and worked with Eric Clapton, Stevie Wonder, David Foster, Gladys Knight, Anita Baker, Bobby Brown, The Clark Sisters, and his own younger sisters, Angie and Debbie Winans. He also spent years as a member of the extended Ron Winans Family & Friends choir project, led by his brother Ronald, a series that helped introduce a young Donnie McClurkin to wider gospel audiences.
Rise to Prominence and Later Career
BeBe’s 2006 album Dream carried his biggest solo statement, “I Have a Dream,” a song built around samples of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 speech at the March on Washington, woven together with BeBe’s own vocal lines. It’s the kind of song that shows what he does best: taking something sacred and something historical and finding the note where they meet.
In 2009, BeBe and CeCe reunited for Still, their first album together in more than fifteen years. It hit No. 1 on the Gospel Album Chart and No. 2 on the R&B Album Chart, proof the chemistry never actually left. Two years later, in 2011, BeBe and CeCe’s names went on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2022, the duo was inducted into the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame.
BeBe didn’t stop at music. He wrote the off-Broadway musical Born for This, based on his own life, and starred on Broadway in The Color Purple opposite Chaka Khan. In 2013, he reunited with brothers Marvin and Carvin to form 3 Winans Brothers, releasing the album Foreign Land in 2014. In 2018, he co-produced “One Last Time [44 Remix],” a reworking of the Lin-Manuel Miranda Hamilton track featuring former President Barack Obama and actor Christopher Jackson, a Top 30 R&B hit that put BeBe’s fingerprints on one of the decade’s biggest cultural crossovers.
Most recently, BeBe released “Father in Heaven (Right Now)” in 2024, filmed live during sold-out South Africa shows, and closed out 2025 with a New Year’s Eve video premiere for his new single “All To Thee,” written with Wren T. Brown and produced with longtime collaborator Jeff Balding. The full single dropped in January 2026. He also hosts the Heart & Soul Radio Show on SiriusXM.
Discography
With CeCe Winans
| Album | Year |
|---|---|
| Lord Lift Us Up | 1984 |
| BeBe & CeCe Winans | 1987 |
| Heaven | 1988 |
| Different Lifestyles | 1991 |
| First Christmas | 1993 |
| Relationships | 1994 |
| Still | 2009 |
Solo Albums
| Album | Year |
|---|---|
| BeBe Winans | 1997 |
| Love & Freedom | 2000 |
| Live and Up Close | 2002 |
| My Christmas Prayer | 2004 |
| Dream | 2006 |
| America America | 2012 |
| Need You | 2019 |
This list covers his primary studio releases; it doesn’t include the string of live projects, remix EPs, and collaborative singles he’s dropped in recent years, including his 2002 fan favorite “It All Comes Down to Love.”
Personal Life
BeBe was formerly married to Debra Denise Winans; the marriage ended in divorce. Sources agree he has two children, Miya D. Winans and Benjamin Winans Jr., though a handful of lower-authority sites list two additional kids, Whitney and Cedric. Since that isn’t confirmed by any primary source, treat it as unverified.
BeBe is also a published author. His 2012 memoir, The Whitney I Knew, chronicled his close friendship with Whitney Houston, whom he’d known since their PTL days and who sang backing vocals on some of his earliest work. In 2019, he released a second memoir, Born for This: My Story in Music, going deeper into his life between the church, the family business, and the mainstream industry.
Faith and Ministry Philosophy
BeBe was raised in the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) tradition, the same denomination that shaped his parents and every one of his siblings. His father’s rule growing up was strict: gospel music only in the house. That upbringing still shows in how BeBe writes. Even his most R&B-leaning songs circle back to worship, and his recent single “All To Thee” is built entirely around surrender and gratitude toward God, the same themes he’s returned to since “Lord Lift Us Up” in 1984.
Influence and Legacy
BeBe and CeCe are widely credited as among the first Black artists to get real airplay on contemporary Christian radio, a format that had mostly ignored Black gospel until they broke through. Their sound gave younger urban and contemporary gospel artists a template: keep the message, but don’t be afraid of an R&B chord progression. That approach runs through gospel radio today, from Marvin Sapp to Fred Hammond and beyond.
[IMAGE: BeBe and CeCe Winans on stage together]
Net Worth
Estimates for BeBe Winans’ net worth range from $4 million to $4.5 million, based on album sales, touring, songwriting and production credits, acting roles, and book royalties. These figures come from celebrity net worth sites, not from BeBe or his team directly, so treat them as rough estimates rather than confirmed numbers.
Awards and Recognition
- Six Grammy Awards (three solo, three with CeCe)
- Ten Dove Awards solo, nine more with CeCe
- Six Stellar Awards solo
- Four NAACP Image Awards
- Three Soul Train Music Awards (two with CeCe)
- Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (2011, with CeCe)
- Inducted into the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame (2022, with CeCe)
Interesting Facts
- BeBe and CeCe shared a locker at Mumford High School in Detroit.
- BeBe’s nephew Mario Winans, the son of Vickie Winans, won a Grammy for co-writing CeCe’s song “Pray.”
- BeBe’s real-life story became a stage musical, and in a 2016 production, he was played by his own great-nephew and great-niece, Juan and Deborah Joy Winans.
- BeBe co-produced a 2018 Hamilton remix featuring former President Barack Obama.
Timeline
- 1962: Born September 17 in Detroit, Michigan.
- 1982: Joins CeCe as part of the PTL Singers on The PTL Club.
- 1984: Releases “Lord Lift Us Up” with CeCe, his first record.
- 1987: Signs with Sparrow Records; self-titled BeBe & CeCe Winans album drops.
- 1991: Different Lifestyles wins a Grammy for Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album.
- 1995: BeBe and CeCe part ways to pursue solo careers.
- 1997: Releases solo debut album, BeBe Winans.
- 2005: Brother Ronald Winans dies at 48.
- 2006: Releases Dream, featuring “I Have a Dream.”
- 2009: Father David “Pop” Winans dies in April; BeBe and CeCe reunite for Still.
- 2011: BeBe and CeCe receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
- 2012: Releases memoir The Whitney I Knew and solo album America America.
- 2014: Releases Foreign Land with 3 Winans Brothers.
- 2019: Publishes second memoir, Born for This: My Story in Music.
- 2022: BeBe and CeCe inducted into the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame.
- 2024: Releases “Father in Heaven (Right Now).”
- 2026: Releases new single “All To Thee” in January.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happened between BeBe and CeCe Winans?
Nothing dramatic. They recorded together from 1984 to 1994, then split in 1995 to focus on solo careers. They stayed close the whole time and reunited in 2009 for the album Still, which hit No. 1 on the Gospel Album Chart.
Are BeBe and CeCe twins?
No. BeBe was born in 1962 and CeCe in 1964. They’re two years apart, not twins, though two of BeBe’s other brothers, Carvin and Marvin, are actual fraternal twins.
Which of the Winans family members have passed away?
BeBe’s oldest brother, Ronald Winans, died of heart complications on June 17, 2005, at age 48. Their father, David “Pop” Winans Sr., died on April 8, 2009, at age 74.
What religion is BeBe Winans?
BeBe was raised in the Church of God in Christ (COGIC), the Pentecostal denomination his parents belonged to, and his faith and church background shape nearly everything he writes.
Who is BeBe Winans’ wife?
BeBe was previously married to Debra Denise Winans. The couple divorced, and BeBe has not publicly remarried.
Does BeBe Winans have children?
Yes. He has two confirmed children, Miya D. Winans and Benjamin Winans Jr.
How many siblings does BeBe Winans have?
Nine. BeBe is the seventh of ten children born to David and Delores Winans.
What is BeBe Winans’ latest song?
His newest single, “All To Thee,” premiered as a video on New Year’s Eve 2025 and released in full in January 2026, following 2024’s “Father in Heaven (Right Now).”
