CeCe Winans has been singing gospel music for as long as she can remember, and she's seen the genre go through a series of changes, becoming more popular as it became, to some, more secular.
But Winans takes pride in having never strayed from the principle message of the music: love and reverence. She says her new CD, Purified, is a statement about the meaning of pure love.
"It's a CD that's really talking about relationships," she tells Ed Gordon. "It's important that you know what real love is. Real love is pure."
The tunes on Purified aren't your typical Sunday-morning choir spirituals -- they boast pop, soul, hip-hop and R&B flavors, updating the message with a contemporary sound. But Winans says she remains true to the spirit of gospel.
"I will never compromise the gospel message, because that's the thing that makes the difference," she says. "That's the thing that changes it from just being entertainment to being a ministering tool."
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