Charlie Wilson

Charles Kent Wilson (born January 29, 1953), also known as Uncle Charlie, is an American singer, musician, songwriter, and the former lead vocalist of the Gap Band.

Charlie Wilson was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on January 29, 1953; he was the son of the Reverend Oscar Wilson, a minister in the Church of God in Christ.

With his older brother Ronnie and younger brother Robert, Wilson often sang in church before their father's Sunday sermons, accompanied on piano by their mother.

He also sang in his junior high school's choir, which was a precursor to his musical career with the Gap Band and later his solo career.

He attended high school at Booker T. Washington High School.

He attended Langston University and would go on to become drum major in the Langston University Marching Pride.

From the start of his career, Charlie and his brothers, Robert and Ronnie, helped define and popularize an upbeat form of funk music that was infectious and lasting with their group the Gap Band.

Magicians Holiday was the debut album by The Gap Band in 1974 on Shelter Records founded by Leon Russell and Denny Cordell.

The band recorded at The Church Studio, a historic recording studio in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The group's songs such as "Outstanding", "Party Train", "Yearning for Your Love", "Burn Rubber on Me", "You Dropped a Bomb on Me", and "Oops Upside Your Head" are among their immense catalog and some of the most sampled songs in music history.

In 1986, Wilson contributed vocals to Roger & Zapp's hit "Computer Love", a song that become a hit despite initial opposition from Wilson's label.

There was a discussion between Roger Troutman and Wilson to create a music video for the song.

Unfortunately, this did not come to fruition, due to opposition from the label that Wilson was signed to at the time.

The fact that both singers were from rival bands played a hand in the opposition as well.

However, the two maintained their close friendship, and would perform often the song together on stage.

In 1989, Wilson worked with Eurythmics on their album We Too Are One, providing backing vocals on several tracks and co-writing the hit song "Revival".

Wilson performed the song with the band on the British television chat show Wogan in August 1989.

Michael Paran, who is CEO of P Music Group, was responsible for rebranding the Gap Band in 1997 and repositioning them as one of the top R&B touring groups.

A few years later, Paran persuaded Wilson to embark on a solo career.

He has managed Wilson since then.

In 1998, Wilson performed on Mystikal's Ghetto Fabulous album.

Paran and Wilson independently released Wilson's first solo album Bridging the Gap (2000), which scored them Wilson's first No. 1 Billboard Urban Adult Contemporary single, "Without You".

In 2004, Paran successfully negotiated a multi-album deal for Wilson with Jive Records.

The first album from that deal, Charlie, Last Name Wilson, debuted in the fall of 2005 featuring production from various hit-making producers including R. Kelly, Justin Timberlake, will.i.am, the Underdogs, Kay Gee, and the Platinum Brothers.

The album, which was certified gold by the R.I.A.A., produced the hit single, "Charlie, Last Name Wilson".

Since then, Wilson has consistently topped the Billboard Urban Adult Contemporary chart with singles from his follow up albums through P Music/Jive Records.

Altogether Charlie Wilson's albums have sold over one million copies.

In 2007, Wilson performed in two songs on UGK's Underground Kingz album: "Quit Hatin' the South" and "How Long Can It Last".

As a solo artist Wilson has been nominated for 13 Grammy Awards and 11 NAACP Image Awards (including two wins), received a 2009 Soul Train Icon Award, and was a recipient of a BMI Icon Award in 2005.

In 2009 and 2020, he was named Billboard magazine's No. 1 Adult R&B Artist, and his song "There Goes My Baby" was named the No. 1 Urban Adult Song for 2009 in Billboard.

His 2009 LP, Uncle Charlie, debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 200 and No. 1 on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop chart, and received two 2010 Grammy nominations: Best R&B Album and Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male for "There Goes My Baby".

After 15 albums the Gap Band announced their retirement in 2010.

In December 2010, Just Charlie was released and spawned the hit single "You Are" which held the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Urban Adult Contemporary chart for 13 weeks as well as 15 weeks consecutively on the Mediabase chart.

In 2010, chart-topping producer/artist Kanye West included Wilson on his album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

Wilson recorded over a dozen songs with Kanye and appeared on the following songs: "See Me Now", with Kanye West featuring Beyoncé; "All of the Lights", with Kanye West featuring Rihanna; "Lost in the World", "Runaway", and "Monster", with Kanye West featuring Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj, and Rick Ross.

In addition to these songs, Wilson appeared on five of the G.O.O.D. Friday Releases to promote the new CD including, "Lord, Lord, Lord" with Kanye West, featuring Mos Def, Swizz Beatz, Raekwon; and "Good Friday" with Common, Pusha T, Kid Cudi, and Big Sean.

The song earned two 2012 Grammy nominations, Best R&B Performance and Best R&B Song, giving Wilson, his wife Mahin, and their fellow songwriters Dennis Bettis, Carl M. Days, Jr., and Wirlie Morris (who co-produced the track with Wilson) their first nomination as songwriters together.

On June 30, 2013, BET honored Wilson with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Wilson is the national spokesman of the Prostate Cancer Foundation, where there is a Creativity Award in his name.

The organization donates hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to cancer research across the United States.