Yolanda Adams

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Yolanda Adams will highlight the 15th annual Martin Luther King Jr. “Realizing the Dream” event at The University of Alabama’s Moody Music Concert Hall, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2004 at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets for the performance are $15 and go on sale at 9 a.m. Monday, Jan. 12, at the Moody Music Hall box office. For ticket information, or an immediate credit card purchase, call the School of Music Box Office at 205/348-7111.

Adams has accomplished what few singers before her have achieved: the ability to attract fans from all walks of like without ever straying from the intricate roots that nurtured her Grammy winning voice. The cornerstone of her career has been the 1999 platinum-plus, award winning Elektra Records’ “Mountain High … Valley Low,” which established her as a Gospel force. Her impressive musical range and charisma helped liberate Gospel music’s more formal, traditional image.

“I always get asked the same question,” Adams said. “‘Will you get tired of Gospel? Is there a temptation to do something else?’ My answer has always been the same. ‘No way.’ I’m a Gospel artist. There’s no confusion about that. I like to sing songs that, in the end, touch everybody. There’s a humanity to these songs that gets in your blood.”

Adams was honored with the 2000 Grammy award for Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album, five Stellar Awards, two Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards and five NAACP Image Awards. She has performed for TNT’s “Come Together: A Night for John Lennon,” “Oprah,” “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” “The View” and countless others.

Several presentations also will be made by students from UA and Stillman College. This annual event is sponsored in conjunction with Stillman College and Shelton State Community College, and it serves as a lasting tribute to the life and memory of Martin Luther King Jr. by presenting some of America’s best-known performers from the stage, screen and recording studio.

Past performers have included Al Green, Ossie Davis, Sidney Poitier, Roberta Flack, Harry Belafonte, Cicely Tyson, Take 6 and Tonea Stewart.