New album "Imprint" out now!
One of the most talked about voices in gospel music today belongs to 3x 2023 Stellar Award winning, Grammy and BET Award Nominee and Award-winning songwriter, Zacardi Cortez. Born in Houston, TX, Cortez hails from a singing family of faith.
At the age of five he began singing in church and worked the Texas gospel circuit with his family, The Cortez Singers. At age 8, John P. Kee, adopted him as a spiritual son and began mentoring him. For a while, Cortez sang with Kee’s V.I.P. Mass Choir and sang a solo on the CD, Live at the Fellowship, in 2001. He later made guest appearances on recordings by Kurt Carr, Bishop Paul S. Morton and Pastor Gregg Patrick & the Bridge Project. During the early years of his career, Cortez’ big voice and spine-tingling vocal gymnastics distinguished James Fortune & FIYA’s radio smashes “Let Your Power Fall,” “I Believe” and “The Blood.”
Cortez’s recent wave in Gospel Music include the viral hit “Lord Do It Again” which surpassed 80MIL TikTok plays/uses in April 2023. At the end of 2022 he celebrated his fourth #1Billboard Gospel Airplay single “You’ve Been Good to Me;” a song he penned. His previous #1 Billboard single “You Don’t Know,” is also written by Cortez joined by James Fortune; produced by Marcus Calyen and AyRon Lewis. Zacardi had a prior12 week run at #1 on the same chart for the song “God Held Me (Together).” Other Top 10 solo radio hits include “YDIA,” “1-On-1,” and “One More Time,” featuring Pastor John P. Kee.
Zacardi Cortez has enjoyed appearances on major platforms including The Stellar Awards, Black Music Honors, P. Diddy’s Bad Boy Reunion Tour and BET’s “Sunday Best;” along with releasing three Top 10 albums, The Introduction (2012), Reloaded (2014), Imprint: Live in Memphis (2022).