Latice Crawford (born July 22, 1982 as Latice Tenae Crawford) is an American

urban contemporary gospel Urban/contemporary gospel, also known as urban gospel music, urban gospel pop, or just simply urban gospel, is a modern subgenre of gospel music. Although the style developed gradually, early forms are generally dated to the 1970s, and the gen ...

singer and composer. She is best known for using her three-octave,

contralto A contralto () is a classical music, classical female singing human voice, voice whose vocal range is the lowest of their voice type, voice types. The contralto's vocal range is fairly rare, similar to the mezzo-soprano, and almost identical to ...

vocal range of to finish third on the second season of the competitive gospel singing television show ''Sunday Best'' on

Black Entertainment Television Black Entertainment Television (BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting Black American audiences. It is the flagship channel of the BET Media Group, a subsidiary of Paramount Global's CBS Entertainment Group. Originally launched ...

. Her self-titled debut album reached two ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' charts, the

Top Gospel Albums Top Gospel Albums is a music chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States, ranking the popularity of gospel albums. As of Tuesday, January 31, 2017 (with the charts dated February 11, 2017), it uses the same multi-metric m ...

and the

Top Heatseekers The Heatseekers charts were "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. The Heatseekers Albums and the Heatseekers Songs charts were introduced by ''Billboard'' in 1991 with the purpose of highlighting the sales b ...

. Her second album, ''Diary of a Church Girl'', also appeared on the Top Gospel Albums chart.

Early life

Crawford was born in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

, New York,. Growing up as the middle sister of three, Crawford sang in children's choirs and eventually rose to become a soloist and worship leader. This led to her serving in recording sessions, doing vocal references and singing background for established artists.

Music career

Crawford first gained fame during her performances on ''Sunday Best'', where she finished in third place. Over the course of the series, Crawford gave well-received renditions of "Reach Out And Touch Somebody's Hand" and "Peace Be Still." Since the show, Crawford has starred in a reality series and released two studio albums. Her first studio album, ''Latice Crawford'', was released by

RCA Inspiration RCA Inspiration (formerly Verity Gospel Music Group) is a gospel music group operating under Sony Music Entertainment. History Inception In late 2002, BMG completed the purchase of the Zomba Group for US$2.74 billion and as a part of that deal, ...

in 2014,. Her sophomore release, Diary of a Church Girl, is a five-song EP. It features the songs "Author" and "Choose Me", which both made it to ''Billboard's'' Top Gospel Airplay and Hot Gospel Songs Charts. The EP also garnered Crawford her first Stellar Award Nomination for Contemporary Female Vocalist of the Year.

Discography

Studio albums

Personal life

Latice resides in

East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania East Stroudsburg is a borough in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, and part of the Pocono Mountains region of the state. Originally known as Dansbury, East Stroudsburg was renamed for geographic reasons when the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railr ...

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crawford, Latice 1982 births Living people African-American songwriters African-American Christians Musicians from New York City Songwriters from New York (state) Songwriters from Pennsylvania RCA Records artists Urban contemporary gospel musicians 21st-century African-American women singers 21st-century American women singers Singers with a three-octave vocal range American contraltos