Helen Baylor was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and raised in Los Angeles, where she first performed as a secular nightclub act. She opened for Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, and B.B. King while still in her teens, and performed in the musical Hair. In the 1970s she continued working in musicals and also sang with Captain & Tennille and Chaka Khan, but struggled with drug abuse in the 1980s as her career soured.
Baylor became sober late in the decade, strengthening her Christian faith and deciding to launch a career in gospel music. She released her first gospel effort on Word Records in 1990. Her first five albums all hit the Top Ten of the U.S. Billboard Top
