Candi Staton

Candi Staton is an American singer born in Hanceville, Alabama, whose career spans gospel, soul, R&B and disco. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a soul and R&B artist recording for Fame Records in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, delivering emotionally raw, gritty Southern soul vocals that drew comparisons to Aretha Franklin. Her early recordings established her as one of the defining female voices of the Muscle Shoals soul sound.

In the mid-1970s she moved toward disco and had international success with «Young Hearts Run Free», an anthem about independence within a difficult relationship that became one of the era's most enduring dance tracks. She continued to record dance-oriented material through the disco years while never fully abandoning her soul roots. Later in her career she returned prominently to gospel and Christian music, releasing songs such as «Hallelujah Anyway» and «Jesus Is Here Right Now» that reflected a return to her earliest musical upbringing in the church.

Staton's career is notable for its range across genres that rarely overlap so completely in one artist — gospel, deep soul, disco and contemporary Christian music — and for a voice recognizable across all of them for its power and emotional directness. She remains a respected figure in soul and gospel music history.