At the moment, that candidate is Herman Cain: business executive, African-American Baptist preacher and gospel singer and believer in small government and individual responsibility.

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Yolanda Adams has enjoyed years of success as a gospel singer.

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She was a gospel singer and a good one at that.

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It was in the church that Williams met Shirley Ann Lee, a gospel singer who provided Double U Sound with some of its most successful recordings.

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Her mother was gospel singer Martha Bass, one of the Clara Ward Singers and Fontella Bass began performing at a young age, singing in her church's choir at the age of six.

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Former M People singer Heather Small, supported by a gospel choir, sang "Proud", the bid's campaign anthem.

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The uninspired, generic Hollywood score often makes the premise feel preposterous rather than moving, but there are some high points, including a gorgeous Michael Hedges tune that gets passed off as an original by August (which he plays the first time he picks up a guitar) and a gospel number featuring a solo by the preternaturally gifted young singer Jamia Simone Nash.

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