Benita Jones

While serving numerous roles in the church, from praise & worship leader to pastor, Benita Jones has remained active as a contemporary gospel recording artist. The Stellar Awards nominee hit the Top Ten of Billboard's gospel chart with her debut album, Hold On (2004), and has continued to release new material every few years, including The Word Remains (2010), The Evolution (2018), and The Entreating (2020). Benita Jones, formerly Benita Washington, studied voice performance in her home state, at the University of Alabama, and made a name for herself as the winner of the Gospel Music Channel's first Gospel Dream competition. After the Selma native performed and recorded with CeCe Winans, she made her solo debut in 2004 with Hold On, which peaked at number six on Billboard's Top Gospel Albums chart. Jones continued to support Winans as a background vocalist and subsequently became director of praise & worship, and then general overseer of music and worship arts, at Nashville's Mt. Zion Baptist Church. Jones released her second album, Renaissance -- recorded live in Nashville -- in 2007. The Word Remains arrived three years later, after which she moved into mentoring worship leaders and teams, became a pastor, and founded evolveU Worship. Jones still made time to record. In 2018, she issued The Evolution, an EP that led to a Stellar Awards nomination in the category of Contemporary Female Vocalist of the Year. Jones returned two years later with another live album, The Entreating, while serving as associate pastor at Atlanta's All Nations Worship Assembly. ~ Andy Kellman