NASHVILLE, TN (CelebrityAccess) — Mandisa Lynn Hundley, the Grammy nominated gospel singer and former American Idol contestant has died. She was 47.
Her passing was confirmed by a statement on her official social media channels, noting that Mandisa was found deceased in her home, but additional details regarding the cause and circumstances of her passing were not available.
A native of Sacramento, Hundley successfully auditioned for American Idol 5th season in 2005 and made it to the top 9 before she was ultimately eliminated.
Following the show, she recorded a gospel album that landed on the Billboard 200 and earned her a Grammy nomination for best pop/contemporary gospel album. Two subsequent albums earned Grammy nods as well but it wasn’t until 2014’s Overcomer that she won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Christian Music Album.
That same year, after a personal tragedy, Mandisa stepped back from her career as a recording artist for several years before returning in 2017 with new music and the memoir “Out of the Dark: My Journey Through the Shadows to Find God’s Joy.”
“It got pretty bad — to the point where if I had not gotten off that road I would not be sitting here today,” Mandisa told Good Morning America in a 2017 interview, “God is what I say. He saved my life quite literally.”
