CeCe Winans Presents Purified
The Grammy winning artist's seventh solo album will release September 13th
“It’s what I wanna be, it’s what we should all strive to be,” says CeCe Winans about being purified, which is the title of the Grammy, Dove, and Stellar Award-winning artist’s seventh solo project.
“Keith Thomas came up with the music [for the title track] and actually he came up with the hook ‘Purified,’” says Winans. “And when I came and heard the track without the words on it, it was so different to me, the track is just beautiful, and then he told me about ‘Purified’ and I was like, ‘That’s perfect,’ because it’s what I know the Father desires of us, that we purify ourselves.”
The first pop project between Winan’s PureSprings Label, INO Records, Sony Urban Music, and Epic Records, Purified showcases a diverse musical palette of gospel, pop, R&B, dance, and even hip-hop produced by a host of personalities including Keith Thomas (Jessica Simpson, Vanessa Williams), Tommy Simms (Bruce Springsteen, Michael Bolton, The Neville Brothers), Andy Selby (Michelle Williams, Smokie Norful), and Cece’s nephew Mario Winans (Destiny’s Child, Frankie J, Mary J. Blige, R. Kelly, Wendy Williams, New Edition) who co-penned and produced “Pray"--one of two tracks on the album that features the rap duo Grits.
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“Grits—they are great!” exclaims Winans. “They did a rap for me on my CeCe Winans CD…and they’re really wonderful guys, really proud of what they’ve done and how God has blessed them to reach the world with the message. I’m honored to have them again on this CD, and once again they did a wonderful job.”
Along with displaying her knack for musical diversity, Purified is also a candid look at Winans’ personal life including her relationships with her sisters, her husband, and with God.
“With ‘Always Sisters’ I got a chance to write a song and sing a song with my two younger sisters, and we had a great time,” says Winans. “We come from a big family where our parents really drilled in us to love each other. And that doesn’t mean that you’re going to agree all the time, you’re probably going to disagree most of the time (laughs), but we’ve learned to love each other and to laugh through it, and no matter what happens or what somebody might do, we’re going to be there for one another.”
More than just a personal reflection, “Always Sisters” was penned by Winans in hopes of encouraging others to nurture their relationships with their siblings.
“It’s like an anthem; it’s a song that hopefully the world will catch onto and everybody will feel the love,” says Winans. “But especially women and sisters—that they will look at that relationship again and realize how important it is to have a sister, realize the role, the responsibility of a sister to love and to care and to hang in their and hold each other up. And I just feel blessed that I still have both my sisters with me. They’ve grown up to be wonderful wives and mothers, but we still have fun being sisters, and it’s a great relationship and hopefully it’ll encourage other sisters to be close, to forgive one another and look at what family really means.”
Alongside “Always Sisters” on Purified is the song “I Promise,” which CeCe calls “the perfect wedding song.”
“I’ve been married, thank God, for 21 years now, to a man who I really love, who I adore, who has been there for me, who’s been a great supporter, who’s been a covering for me, and what can I say, the most important relationship is with your spouse, besides God, God is first,” says Winans.
Not a typical love song, “I Promise” expresses Winans belief that a relationship with God is essential to having harmony between spouses.
“In ‘I Promise’ it tells you about what real love is and what it means, and also how prayer is a part of that, how God is a part of that,” Winans says. “I know for us, He’s the reason why we’re still together, He’s the reason why we’re still in love and that we enjoy each other, because we’ve always welcomed Him in our home, we’ve always stood for holiness in our home, and we’ve always sought Him when we had problems with each other.”
A pervading theme throughout the album, Winans’ own relationship with God is the centerpiece of Purified’s first single, “All That I Need,” which debuted as the 2nd Most Added Song to Mainstream AC Radio.
Winans said the following regarding “All That I Need”:
“What can I say, that’s just my testimony, that’s just the truth; we worry about a lot of things, but the only thing we need is love, and that is God’s love. When you really have somebody to love you, it’s a blessing, and God created it that way, we need each other…but we definitely cannot live without God’s love.”
A minister at heart, Winans hopes that Purified will be able to spread to many its message of “real love.”
“A lot people don’t have a clue what real love is,” she continues. “And they just really don’t know, because unfortunately they didn’t have examples. “You have divorce rates being so high, the relationships with parents and children, with sisters and brothers, a lot of love has waxed cold already, so it’s needed, it’s really needed…You look at a lot of songs and a lot of music and they misrepresent what real love is, and so to get a chance to talk about it and to sing about it, hopefully, I pray, it will make a difference in people’s everyday lives.”
Purified will hit stores on September 13th.
In support of the album, CeCe will tour this fall, performing at a Luis Palau, Megafest, Joyce Meyer and other conventions.
For more information on CeCe Winans, click on www.cecewinans.com.
