My family knows God is good to me. To go from #1 to Top 5 and then back to #1,” said Charlie Wilson about his career first on Billboard Charts – having two #1 hits at the same time. Wilson is an 11-time Grammy nominated performer who started many, many years ago as The Gap Band’s front man.
“I understand I’ve been blessed and the people around me understand… and keep telling me to keep my focus.”
The blessing Charlie, affectionately called Uncle Charlie, is talking about is reaching #1 on two different Billboard Charts at the same time. Both singles came from his 2017 album release Wilson’s In It To Win It (P Music Group).
The “I’m Blessed” single debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Hot Gospel Chart in 2017 and remained on its Top 5 Chart for 45 weeks straight before regaining its #1 position setting a career record because Charlie’s current single “Chill” was also #1 at the time on Billboards Adult R&B Chart.
“It’s the first gospel single that we’ve pushed,” Charlie said when I asked if this was his first gospel song. Wilson said he always had a gospel song on his albums to thank God for his blessings but it is the first time his label released it as a single.
“When it debuted it went right to #1…this has never happened. I’m working on Gospel (project) now. It has no name yet but I got two records.”
Charlie is not new to blessings from God – he had prostate cancer and has been cancer-free for nine years now. He has been drug-free and sober for 22 years.
“God is trying to say ‘I got you up here…I gave you a platform…now use it for the good,” said Uncle Charlie when I asked what he thinks God is saying to him with all of those major blessings.
Wilson is a living legend. His most notable solo hit for me is “You Are,” which he received a Grammy Award nomination. In 2012, he received the BET “Lifetime Achievement Award.”
“I think a lot of people know that God has blessed them too. Many of us know God is there and is blessing us…so they giving Him some praise,” Charlie said on the subject of the rise in Hip-Hop and R&B artists releasing gospel projects, such as Snoop Dogg’s Bible of Love.
“They’re giving Him all the glory.”
That is what Charlie has been doing since day one. Every time I’ve interviewed him, from back in The Gap Band days and throughout out his solo career, he has talked about how God has blessed him. That is why to this day he is still a very active iconic music figure that is still releasing #1 hits.
PHOTO: PR Photos
Eunice Moseley is a public relations strategist and business management consultant at Freelance Associates, and is Promotions Director (at-large) for The Baltimore Times.
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