CLEVELAND — Three-time GRAMMY® Award-winning, Mississippi-born country artist Charley Pride is the inaugural recipient of GRAMMY Museum® Mississippi’s Crossroads of American Music Award.

The award was presented to Pride at the Mississippi Museum’s 2019 Gala on Friday, Nov. 1. Established by the Museum’s Board of Directors, the Crossroads of American Music Award honors an artist who has made significant musical contributions influenced by the creativity born in the cradle of American music.

Pride is celebrating more than 50 years as a recording artist. He has enjoyed one of the most successful careers in the history of country music and is credited with helping to break color barriers by becoming the first black superstar within the genre. A true living legend, he has sold tens of millions of records worldwide with his large repertoire of hits.

A three-time GRAMMY® Award winner and Recording AcademyTM Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, Pride has garnered no less than 36 chart-topping country hits, including “Kiss An Angel Good Morning,” a massive #1 crossover hit that sold over a million singles and helped Pride land the Country Music Association’s “Entertainer of the Year” award in 1971 and the “Top Male Vocalist” awards of 1971 and 1972. A proud member of the Grand Ole Opry, Pride continues to perform concerts worldwide and has toured the United States, Canada, Ireland, The United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand over the last several years. His latest album, Music In My Heart, was released in 2017 on Music City Records.

The annual GRAMMY Museum Mississippi Gala is the Museum’s signature fundraising event, with proceeds benefiting the Museum’s education program, which seeks to use music as a gateway to learning by inspiring and cultivating creativity, critical thinking and self-expression.

The theme for the 2019 GRAMMY Museum Mississippi Gala was “Girls, Guitars, & Rocktail Bars.” The event, developed by the Mississippi Museum’s Red Carpet Guild — an organization of committed volunteers whose mission is to promote, support and sustain the Mississippi Museum — featured a reception, dinner and cocktails, live music from Nashville country-pop trio Southern Halo and Memphis’ Almost Famous and a special performance from Charley Pride, and a live auction.

About GRAMMY Museum Mississippi

 

Developed by the Cleveland Music Foundation — a nonprofit organization founded in 2011 — the 28,000-square- foot GRAMMY Museum Mississippi is housed near the campus of Delta State University, home of the Delta Music Institute’s Entertainment Industry Studies program, which features the most unique audio recording facilities in the South. Affiliated with the Recording AcademyTM, GRAMMY Museum Mississippi is dedicated to exploring the past, present, and future of music, and the cultural context from which it emerges, while casting a focused spotlight on the deep musical roots of Mississippi. The Museum features a dynamic combination of public events, educational programming, engaging multimedia presentations, and interactive permanent and traveling exhibits, including a Mississippi-centric area that introduces visitors to the impact of Mississippi’s songwriters, producers, and musicians on the traditional and modern music landscape.