(OCEAN CITY, NJ) -- Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Mavis Staples will perform on Monday, August 25, 2025 at the Ocean City Music Pier on the Boardwalk in Ocean City. Special guest Jeffrey Gaines will open the night. Showtime is 7:00pm.
Mavis Staples rose to fame as a member of her family’s band, The Staple Singers. Inspired by the close friendship between her father, “Pops” Staples, and Martin Luther King, Jr., The Staple Singers became one of the prominent musical voices of the civil rights movement, covering songs including Steven Stills’ “For What It’s Worth” and Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall.”
Signing to Stax Records in 1968, where the group’s vocal harmonies were recorded with instrumentals supplied by members of Booker T. and the MGs, Mavis and The Staple Singers hit the Top 40 eight times and scored two #1 singles, “I’ll Take You There” and “Let’s Do It Again.”
In 1969, Staples released the first of many solo albums that also included 1993’s The Voice, produced by Prince, which People magazine named one of the Top Ten Albums of the Year. She also won a 2010 Grammy for her #1 Billboard gospel album, You Are Not Alone.
Over the course of her career, Staples recorded with a wide variety of musicians including Bob Dylan, The Band, and Ray Charles. Additionally, she sang at the 33rd Kennedy Center Honors ceremony in a tribute to honoree Paul McCartney.
Staples has appeared on various television programs such as Soul Train, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and appeared in films including The Last Waltz. She is the subject of the Peabody-winning 2015 documentary, Mavis! which was screened in theaters and on HBO. Her performances at 1969’s Harlem Cultural Festival are featured in Questlove’s award-winning 2021 music documentary, Summer of Soul.
“I sing because I want to leave people feeling better than I found them,” says Mavis Staples. “I want them to walk away with a positive message in their hearts, feeling stronger than they felt before. I’m singing to myself for those same reasons, too.”
Mavis Staples will perform on Monday, August 25 at 7:00pm at the Ocean City Music Pier, Moorlyn Terrace and the Boardwalk, in Ocean City, NJ with special guest, Jeffrey Gaines. Tickets are available at https://www.etix.com, by phone at 609–525–9248, and in person at the Music Pier Box Office.
