About Donnie McClurkin
Donald Andrew McClurkin Jr. is an American gospel singer and minister. He has won three Grammy Awards, ten Stellar Awards, two BET Awards, two Soul Train Awards, one Dove Award and one NAACP Image Awards. He is one of the top selling gospel artists, selling over 13 million albums. Variety dubbed McClurkin as a "Reigning King of Urban Gospel".
McClurkin was born in Copiague, New York. When he was eight years old his two-year-old brother was hit and killed by a speeding driver, which generated family turmoil. Shortly thereafter, McClurkin was a victim of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of his great uncle, and years later by his great uncle's son. Two of his sisters dealt with substance abuse, and that's when the young McClurkin found solace in going to church, and also through an aunt who sang background vocals with gospel musician Andraé Crouch. By the time he was a teenager, he had formed the McClurkin Singers, and later formed the New York Restoration Choir, with recordings as early as 1975.
He was hired, as an associate minister, at Marvin Winans' Perfecting Church in Detroit, Michigan, in 1989. McClurkin served as an assistant to Winans for over a decade.
In 1991, a sharp pain and swelling, followed by internal bleeding led, he says, to his diagnosis with leukemia. The doctor recommended immediate treatment, but McClurkin, who was then 31, decided instead to take his own advice. "I tell people to believe that God will save you," he says, " I had to turn around and practice the very thing that I preached."
He was ordained and sent out by the Winans in 2001 to establish Perfecting Faith Church in Freeport, New York, where he is Senior Pastor.
A friendship with a Warner Alliance executive resulted in his signing to the label for his 1996 self-titled LP, with producers Bill Maxwell, Mark Kibble of Take 6, Cedric and Victor Caldwell plus Andraé Crouch. The disc, which featured the perennially popular "Stand," went gold shortly after being publicly lauded by Oprah Winfrey. At the 48th Annual Grammy Awards, he won in the category Traditional Soul Gospel Album, for "Psalms, Hymns & Spiritual Songs". McClurkin is best known for his hit songs "Stand" and "We Fall Down" which were played in heavy rotation on both Gospel and Urban radio. His three solo albums have topped the Billboard charts.
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