The only thing that might be as well known as Yolanda Adams’ music may be her sultry sense of style.
The platinum-selling gospel songstress, 63, has garnered headlines since the early 2000s for her bombshell glam and less-than-modest slinky silhouettes. In 2001, she received backlash for a blue knit dress by the GiGi Hunter Collection for her seventh studio album cover. A few years later, the conversation around her style and beauty reached a fever pitch when comedian Steve Harvey said on stage during the 2005 Celebration of Gospel, “Yolanda ‘sho is sexy.”
Criticism came again in 2016 for a teal skin-tight gown with a revealing deep V-neckline she wore to the Stellar Awards.
“I didn’t know there was a thing of ‘you can’t wear this’ and ‘you shouldn’t wear that’ and ‘you need to cover your head’ and stuff like that,” Adams recalled in a new interview with People magazine. “So when people started saying, ‘I don’t know about that [dress],’ well…okay. And now all of a sudden, these are the same people who are now fans. And they’ll say ‘I’ve been with her since day one.’ No, you didn’t. Cut it out. Because I remember!”
On the heels of releasing her 12th studio album after a 13-year-hiatus, “Sunny Days,” on Sept. 13, Adams reflects on her style and the criticism it has garnered throughout her career with the outlet.
“Because I do not have the typical gospel singer body, I think that it was easy for me to just pick out what I wanted and then just wear what I wanted,” Adams continued. “I didn’t grow up in a household where we had stipulations on what we could wear, what we couldn’t wear, what we could listen to, what we couldn’t listen to in my family.”
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Adams, who grew up in Houston, Texas, in a faith-based but free-spirited household, said, “Because of the way I was raised in this very free-thinking family where everybody had their own voice, and everybody had their own talents, I didn’t feel any need to be anybody other than Yolanda.”
She added, “And it was very evident, not just in the music, but in the fashions as well.”
Despite the harsh critics, Adams has also received positive attention for her style. Whenever she receives criticism, several of her peers have come to her defense including Erica Campbell — half of the famed duo Mary Mary. When Adams was facing backlash for her Stellar Awards dress in 2016, Campbell came to her defense in a post on X.
“We have to focus on our souls and not get caught up in the exterior of a person,” she wrote.
Her fans today have dubbed her “Thee Gospel Stallion” for her tall figure, similar to Megan Thee Stallion as she continues to show up in showstopping style. To celebrate the release of “Sunny Days,” the singer released a video montage on Instagram chock full of high-fashion visuals.
“C’MON WITH THE VISUALS AND VOCALS,” a fan wrote in the comments.
Speaking about the new album and her lengthy hiatus on the “Tamron Hall Show,” Adams explained why she prefers the word “evolve” over “reinvent” to describe this phase of her career.
In a followup post on Instagram, she wrote, “Instead, I believe we have to evolve and be grateful for who we were in the past, as that version of ourselves was exactly what we needed to be at that moment.”
