The Dixie Hummingbirds

Celebrating 80 years of performing their groundbreaking gospel music, the Dixie Hummingbirds are an American national treasure! The group began their journey in the 1920s in Greenville, South Carolina. After singing their way through the school years they embarked on their touring career and, along the way, have managed to influence every decade of popular music from the ’20s through the ’60s. Although the group is now primarily made up of young singers, carefully chosen to carry on the tradition, Ira Tucker still is and has been the lead singer since 1938, when he was just 13! The young singer’s energetic performances became the model for the ‘activity’ singer. He ran up and down aisles, jumped from the stage, and spun around without sacrificing one iota of his pure musical sound, inspiring many great R&B and soul singers — Jackie Wilson, Clyde McPhatter, Bobby Blue Bland, Stevie Wonder, and more. The Hummingbirds’ recent recording Still Keeping It Real…The Last Man Standing was nominated for a Grammy in 2007.