What Is Kim Burrell's Net Worth?
Kim Burrell is an American gospel singer, pianist, and pastor who has a net worth of $5 million. Kim Burrell calls her musical style "jazz gospel," and she writes a good portion of the material she records and performs, making her a rarity in the field of gospel music. Burrell performed her first vocal solo with a church choir as a 1-year-old, and her professional career began with Rev. James Cleveland's Gospel Music Workshop Choir, Trinity Temple Full Gospel Mass Choir of Dallas, and the Inspirational Sounds Mass Choir of Houston. Kim has released albums such as "Try Me Again" (1995), "Everlasting Life" (1998), "Live In Concert (2001), "No Ways Tired (2009), "The Love Album" (2011), and "A Different Place" (2015). In 2004, she made an unlikely guest appearance on R. Kelly's "3-Way Phone Call," and she teamed up with funkster George Clinton on his 2008 album "George Clinton and Some Gangsters of Love." Burrell has shared the stage with gospel artists Shirley Caesar, Donnie McClurkin, and Marvin Winans, among others, and she has worked on the secular side of music with the likes of Missy Elliot, Chaka Khan, Stevie Wonder, Whitney Houston and Harry Connick, Jr.
Early Life
Kim Burrell was born Kimberly Jean Burrell on August 26, 1972, in Houston, Texas. Kim is the daughter of pastor Julius Burrell Jr. and evangelist singer Helen Ruth Graham, and she grew up with three siblings. Helen sang with The Church of God in Christ, a Holiness–Pentecostal Christian denomination. During her youth, Burrell performed with the GMWA Youth Mass Choir, which was also known as Rev. James Cleveland's Kids. Cleveland won four Grammys and was nicknamed the "King of Gospel."
Career
Kim later performed with The Inspirational Sounds Mass Choir of Houston and the Trinity Temple Full Gospel Mass Choir of Dallas, and in 1996, she was featured on the "Jesus Paid It All" reprise on the Ricky Dillard & New G album "Worked It Out." She released the independent album "Try Me Again" on Pearl Records in 1995, and it led to her signing with the label Tommy Boy Gospel. Next, Burrell released the 1998 album "Everlasting Life," which reached #10 on the "Billboard" Gospel Charts. She followed that album with 2001's "Live In Concert," which earned a Grammy nomination. Tommy Boy Gospel shut down soon after "Live In Concert" was released, and Kim subsequently signed with Elektra Records. While signed to Elektra Records, she performed on the song "Higher Ground," a bonus track on the 2001 Missy Elliott album "Miss E… So Addictive." Burrell performed on the 2004 R. Kelly track "3-Way Phone Call" and the 2008 George Clinton song "Mathematics of Love," and in 2009, she released "No Ways Tired," her first studio album in over a decade, on Shanachie Records.
Kim released "The Love Album" (2011), and "A Different Place" (2015), and she collaborated with Pharrell Williams on the song "I See a Victory," which appeared on the soundtrack for the 2016 film "Hidden Figures." Burrell has also performed on songs by the Tri-City Singers ("God's Favor"), Hezekiah Walker & The Love Fellowship Choir ("The Lord Will Make a Way Somehow"), Kirk Whalum ("The Moment I Prayed"), Shirley Caesar ("We Praise You Lord"), Harry Connick, Jr. ("I Pray On Christmas," "All These People," "Song for the Hopeful," and "Let There Be Peace On Earth"), Stevie Wonder ("If Your Love Cannot Be Moved"), Frank Ocean ("Godspeed"), Jay Z ("4:44"), and Snoop Dogg ("Sunshine Feel Good"). She appeared in the 2003 Harry Connick, Jr. special "Harry for the Holidays," the 2018 TV documentary "Whitney Houston: Close Up," and the 2023 UPtv special "I Go to the Rock: The Gospel Music of Whitney Houston."
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Personal Life
Burrell was previously married to Pastor Joseph Wiley, and they have a son named Christian. In late 2016, a video surfaced that showed a homophobic sermon Kim delivered at the Love & Liberty Fellowship Church. In the sermon, she called members of the LGBTQ community "perverted" and said that the "homosexual spirit" was present in the church and "has embarrassed the kingdom of God." Burrell responded to backlash from the sermon with a Facebook Live video in which she said, "To every person that is dealing with the homosexual spirit, that has it, I love you because God loves you. But God hates the sin in you and me, anything that is against the nature of God." After the video surfaced, Kim's planned appearance on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" was canceled, the BMI Trailblazers of Gospel Music event removed her as an honoree, and Texas Southern University canceled her radio program, "Bridging the Gap with Kim Burrell."
Awards and Nominations
Burrell has earned three Grammy nominations: Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album for "Live In Concert" (2002), Best Gospel Performance for "I Understand" (2009), and Best Gospel Album for "The Love Album" (2012). She won an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Song – Traditional for "I See a Victory" (shared with Pharrell Williams) in 2017, and the previous year she was nominated for Outstanding Gospel Album (Traditional or Contemporary) for "A Different Place." Kim won Stella Awards for Contemporary Female Vocalist of the Year for "Everlasting Life" (2000) and "The Love Album" (2012), and "The Love Album" also earned her the Albertina Walker Female Vocalist of the Year award. In 2000, she was named Female Vocalist of the Year – Contemporary for "Everlasting Life" at the Gospel Music Excellence Awards, and in 2002, she received a "Soul Train" Award nomination for Best Gospel Album for "Live in Concert." In 2012, Burrell won a Dove Award for Urban Recorded Song of the Year for "Sweeter."
