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Earlier today, we spoke to gospel singer Kierra Sheard. This weekend, she’s going to be judging McDonald’s Golden Voice Talent Showcase, so we spoke to her about that. During our conversation, she also addressed her comments about homosexuality and victimization and lastly the Clark Sisters biopic.
Tell us about the Golden Voice talent showcase
I wanted to participate because it’s special. First of all, the theme of it all is “We are Golden.” And being that we’re so well-informed about who we are as African Americans. I think it speaks to our strength, how we have the ability to shake up culture. How we have the ability to speak to a nation and I think that McDonald’s doing what they’re doing not just being the popular establishment that has been in our community but to say that they want to speak to our gifts and talents as a people and pour into us because maybe we may come from families who cannot afford us the opportunity to fly us out to L.A., Atlanta or whatever it is to get us in the right office or in front of the right people. They’re bringing it to us. So that’s why I wanted to be a part of it because it’s a great thing. And it’s so necessary because there are so many diamonds in the ruff if I can say it that way. I support who we are and I know that I was just a young girl in the inner city, who was just on the block and I had a talent. And someone gave me an opportunity to just be heard and that’s how I became who I am today, I did the talent shows. And so that’s why I wanted to be a part of it. The next big thing that can change the world, they may be at this talent show. And I would love to be a part of that so I’m looking forward to it.
Do you ever feel pressure or nervousness judging someone—because this is someone’s dream?
Sometimes I do; however, I’m the kind of person where it’s never my intent to hurt anybody’s feelings. Because I know what it’s like for people to just be ready to say whatever they want to say and have no regard how it makes you feel or how it may bruise you. A lot of people around me, they often say you’re too considerate. Even in working in business, so I don’t take it as an opportunity to just judge them. But I’m taking it as an opportunity to push them into purpose. And I’m often praying, asking the Lord to give me wisdom on how to convey what needs to be said. Because I can say that I’ve become who I am and got to where I am by listening and it’s been easier to listen— the Bible says, ‘In the multitude of counsel, there’s safety.’ And I’ve lived that. So I’m hoping to give counsel, not just to judge them and say, ‘Oh this is awful.’ I’m not looking for the opportunity to destroy them but I’m looking for the opportunity to make someone better. Which I often look for the opportunity for someone to sharpen me. The Bible says iron sharpens iron.
I don’t feel bad about it because I know who I am in my heart. And I’m not there to attack. And very often after talent showcases, I’ve said, ‘Can you please make sure I talk to whomever it was where I might have felt like it was uncomfortable for me to say whatever it was that I said?’ I’ve made it a priority to have a personal conversation with them to make sure that it wasn’t misunderstood or misinterpreted. So, if it’s me saying, ‘I don’t think singing is your thing, maybe the Lord will give me the opportunity to say, ‘Maybe entrepreneurship is your thing.’
In keeping with that theme of asking God to direct you in the right things to say, there was some backlash, last year about some comments you made about victimization and homosexuality.
Later you clarified your comments and said that the comments were taken out of context. Can you explain how the comments were taken out of context, whether or not you understand why people were upset and what you learned from that experience?
It was taken out of context because as we all know, the videos that we put on Instagram is only a minute. And that message that I had done, was an hour presentation. So, if you take a minute from an hour presentation, then there’s a lot that you miss before that minute. I have friends that are homosexuals. I have a lot of friends who, as believers, want to be freed from homosexuality. And we talk about it and I don’t judge them. I don’t put my convictions on them. That’s not how I was raised as a believer. It says, ‘With love and kindness have I drawn thee.’ But in that presentation, I was talking to a slew of things as it concerns deliverance. I did not say that every homosexual was once a victim. I was saying that we’ve learned behaviors because we’ve been a victim of traumatizing circumstances. It wasn’t me saying homosexuals have had a victimized experience which has made them homosexual. However, while I was labeling the sin, that was the last sin and that was what was taken in that one minute. I had even spoken to some things that I had struggled with, which was fornication. And I talked about how we begin to learn behaviors and we create struggles and we step out of the Lord’s will, we even get into dysfunctional relationships because we take on a victimized behavior and we develop defense mechanisms. We find that we can’t even accept people who are there to help us to love. So it was literally a long and drawn out way of ministry. And that night, a plethora of people were delivered and that’s why I responded to it. I do know that there are a lot of homosexuals in the community or in my fanbase and it was no intent for me to offend anyone. However, it is my job or my responsibility, as it would be for a friend to hold each other accountable as I would want them to hold me accountable. That’s how that went.
And I do understand but if we see and know the person’s heart and aren’t so quick to judge off of a minute video, we’ll also understand that I don’t need to be offended because I didn’t hear and know everything. It’s the same thing that we go through with everyday life. I can’t take what you’re saying from somebody else because I don’t know the full story. And that’s something we learn when we get in our first fights in middle school.
I learned to be more mindful of what I’m saying and to consider that you are in an era that there’s social media and literally people can cut up, edit, they can put a face to a body that doesn’t even belong to that person. We’re in this era where things can be twisted and also, I’ve learned that though I may come from a village of tough love and where people are correcting me, everybody wasn’t raised like the same way. I’m learning to say less and just praying about it. But I was prayed up in that moment. But as a woman of faith and as a woman of the gospel, everybody won’t agree with what I have to say, so I’ll have to chalk it up and keep it moving. I’d rather be odds with people than to be at odds with God. And that’s my stance on that.
People are really excited to hear about the Clark Sister’s movie. Is there a release date for that?
We don’t have date yet. But I’m really excited about it and it’s super special.
Can you tell us about working with Donald Lawrence to get the vocals to match your mom and your aunts?
I call him Uncle Donald. My first debut when I was nine years old and my mom put me on her record Finally Karen, Uncle Donald was there. He’s become my uncle just in life period. And being there with him and sharing this major opportunity, it’s been a blessing. There were moments when I was in the studio, and he challenged me. He’d be like, ‘Alright Ki, you got to go hard. You’ve got to push this because your mama wouldn’t sing this like that. You gotta sing that stronger, you got to sing that higher.’ And he would give me a moment and say, ‘Alright let’s cut, let’s take a break.’ And for each diamond, there’s pressure. It doesn’t just come with the shine. And in that moment, there were beautiful moments but there was pressure and I loved every moment of it. He just knew music and he knew how to bend your voice. He literally painted a picture for the singer to know how to sing something. And to me, that was just outstanding. And for me, I was just like, ‘Okay, if Uncle Donald is like this, what is God like in heaven, when it comes to music?’ So I was completely blown away.
And then, just to be able to live in my mom’s shoes, in that role it blew me away because I’d literally become light headed trying to hit some of her notes. I’d be like this lady is an alien. Literally, she is not from this world. So it increased my respect for her. Though I have a huge—I’m obsessed with my parents and my relationship is incredible with them. But to see where it just took me, as far as understanding her experience, I was just blown away. So it was an incredible experience with Uncle Donald and overall.
Did you learn anything about your mom or your family during the process that you didn’t know before?
I learned that my grandmother—I mean, this woman was a beast. I think she passed away when I was like 8 or 9. And I clinged to her hip in the last few years of when she was alive when I was able to understand what was going on. I had her around when she was in the wheelchair. I remember my grandmother still being powerful and still kind of being bossy. But it was incredible to see how she displayed such strength while being in a leading role and how she had so much vision having five girls. And maybe her love life wasn’t as beautiful, she didn’t let that show. She still walked in grace. She kept herself together. She kept her girls together.
You know every parent as an issue with one of the children when it comes to the teenage years or us being in that space of ‘I know I’m grown now.’ And so seeing how she handled all of that and then, in addition to that, the opposition of the world. So many people would lose their minds or commit suicide but here you are still pushing Jesus, still pushing faith, still pushing love and accepting other people in. When right now, I’m going through a phase in my life where I’m like I’m sick of people. So it’s really inspiring to see how she just held it down. And it brings tears to my eyes every time and I literally lose words seeing how they did what they did. I can’t wait for you all to see because it’s a beautiful story and especially with us being in this era of strong women. They were strong then so I can’t wait for the world to see it.
What’s coming up next for you?
I have new music coming out and I’m super excited about it. I’m doing music with Missy, Harmony Samuels, my brother J. Drew Sheard, Sir the Baptist. And of course, I have my curvy line Eleven 60 which was just launched on Macy’s.com, which is super epic and big for me. And God is just blessing me. I’m in a great space and things have really taken off.
