Kelontae Gavin was born on Sunday, March 28, 1999 in Charleston. He shot to fame in 2014 after he was caught on camera singing Rev. Paul Jones’ song titled “I won’t complain”, an American Founder and Pastor of Greater New Grove Missionary Baptist Church.
Marquis Boone of Marquis Boone Enterprises saw the video and picked interest in the young Kelontae. Through this “star-maker manager”, Gavin landed a recording contract under Tyscot Records in 2016.
His very first single “Higher” was produced by Grammy Award winning singer and songwriter Myron Butler. It went on to reach the Top 20 on Billboard Magazine’s Gospel Indicator chart in 2017, with over 15 million streams. His debut album, “The Higher Experience,” made its debut at No. 2 on the Top Gospel Albums chart in spring of 2018 while his radio single, “No Ordinary Worship,” reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot Gospel Songs chart in March 2019.
Kelontae boldly declares that his mission is to do what he does for the glory of God. He also has a strong desire to see lives changed around the world.
He has released two albums, The Higher Experience (2018), and The N.O.W. Experience (2021) which were both nominated for awards. As of 2021 he has received 4 Stellar Gospel Music Award nominations.
He developed notoriety when a 2014 YouTube video of him singing the hymn, “I Won’t Complain,” to a cafeteria worker at his former high school, went viral with over one million YouTube views.[2]
In 2016, Gavin was discovered by star-maker manager, Marquis Boone of Marquis Boone Enterprises, who formed a partnership with Tyscot Records to issue the radio single “Higher” in the fall of that year. It was produced by Myron Butler, a Grammy® Award-winning singer and songwriter. The song reached the Top 20 on Billboard Magazine’s Gospel Indicator chart in the spring of 2017. The song also earned the singer a Stellar Gospel Music Award nomination in the category of Youth Project of the year in January 2018.[6]
