The only thing as famous as Yolanda Adams’ music is her sensual sense of favor.

The platinum gospel singer, 63, has been turning heads for the reason that early 2000s for her sex appeal and immodest, tight silhouettes. In 2001, she faced criticism for a blue knit dress GiGi Hunter Collection on the duvet of her seventh studio album. A number of years later, conversations about her style and wonder reached a climax when comedian Steve Harvey he said on stage on the 2005 Gospel Celebration.“Yolanda ‘sho is sexy.”

Criticism got here back in 2016 for the tight, turquoise dress with a deep V-neck she wore to the Stellar Awards.

“I didn’t know there was such a thing as, ‘you can’t wear this,’ ‘you shouldn’t wear that,’ ‘you have to cover your head,’ and all that stuff,” Adams recalled in a brand new interview with People Magazine“So when people started saying, ‘I don’t know about that (dress),’ well… OK. And now all of a sudden, those are the same people who are fans now. And they’ll say, ‘I’ve been with her since day one.’ No, you weren’t. Stop it. Because I remember!”

Fresh off the September 13 release of her twelfth studio album in a 13-year hiatus, Sunny Days , Adams reflects on her style and the criticism it has faced throughout her profession.

“Because I don’t have the typical gospel singer body type, I think it was easy for me to just pick what I wanted and then just wear what I wanted,” Adams continued. “I didn’t grow up in a home where we had restrictions 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 home, said, “Because I was raised in this very free-thinking family where everyone had their own voice and everyone had their own talent, I didn’t feel the need to be anyone other than Yolanda.”

She added: “And it was very visible, not only in music, but also in fashion.”

Despite the tough criticism, Adams has also received positive attention for her style. Whenever she faces criticism, several of her colleagues come to her defense, including Erica Campbell — one half of the famous duo Mary Mary. When Adams faced criticism for her dress on the 2016 Stellar Awards, Campbell got here to her defense in write to X.

“We need to focus on our soul and not get carried away by a person’s outward appearance,” she wrote.

Her fans today called her “The Gospel Stallion” for her tall, Megan Thee Stallion-like figure, which continues to show off in stunning style. To celebrate the release of “Sunny Days,” the singer released a video montage on Instagram stuffed with fashion-related visualizations.

“SO ABOUT THE VISUALIZATIONS AND VOCALS,” wrote a fan in a comment.

Speaking concerning the recent album and her long hiatus on The Tamron Hall Show, Adams explained why she prefers the word “evolve” somewhat than “reinvent” to describe this phase of her profession.

In the following post on Instagram“Instead, I believe we need to grow and be grateful for who we were in the past, because that version of ourselves was exactly who we needed to be in that moment.”

I believe I’m the only person I’ve ever met who knows about the Detroit R&B duo Kiara. My dad bought their second album, Civilized Rogue, which had the song “You’re Right About That” on it – as 90-year-old a song and video as you will ever hear or see. I do not know if it’s true (and I’m undecided my family could confirm this), but I feel like I heard “You’re Right About That” on repeat on Saturday mornings, probably in 1990, while we were cleansing our rooms and whatever else the kids needed to clean on the weekends back then. While the song doesn’t exist for most individuals, it is a reminder of my childhood and a part of the soundtrack to my young, black, Saturday morning.

We were also with Luther Vandross, Kenny G, and Rod Stewart that day. Oh, and Hall & Oates. Saturday mornings were jam-packed with easy tasks. According to each black person I do know, this same pattern played out in black homes throughout America, in addition to those of us in military families overseas. The extent to which we actually cleaned is debatable; my parents said we only needed to clean our rooms on weekends, which is smart—I turned 11 in 1990, and I don’t know how good I used to be at anything at that time.

Now I actually have 4 kids of my very own, and there’s no music on Saturday mornings. Sure, there have been a number of weekends after I’ve woken up the house to 80s R&B or Fela Kuti, but my kids don’t often wake up on Saturdays and take into consideration cleansing their rooms, bathrooms, or living rooms. In fact, most days they don’t give it some thought unless I tell them to do something specific. Not because I’ve lost some sort of value system that gave me my basic memories of random R&B duets, but mostly because nobody is home in my house on Saturday mornings. The way our lives are set up, my kids can get home very late in the day, making it not possible to focus on anyone task. Every weekend is filled with some sort of activity, running the kids from one sporting event or party to a different. It seems to mirror most of my friends’ lives. My kids just don’t have time for it anymore.

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Of course, that is personal; my kids have an interest in numerous things and we all know numerous people, so it is smart that Saturday mornings of my youth can now not exist the way they used to. I feel like I knew numerous people as a child and I definitely played sports, but I actually have numerous memories of playing outside with my friends all the time. I feel like I had all the time in the world, so my parents would expect lots more responsibilities and things. My kids have responsibilities too, but I can be lying if I said they were very time-consuming.

Part of me wants to present my child the same life I had; I grew up to be person, so it looks as if the things I remember fondly contributed to that. But I also wonder if that memory isn’t a relic of a bygone era. Similarly, I ponder if I don’t do not forget that aspect of my life too well; I needed to ask my parents if we cleaned on Saturdays, because the culture made it an integral a part of life for those of us who grew up in the 80s and 90s, but there have been greater than a number of things that live more in cultural memory than in reality. If you let social media let you know, everyone my age woke up at 8 a.m. on a Saturday to Aretha Franklin, wearing a bandana, and cleansing the house from top to bottom. It can have been another person’s life, however it definitely wasn’t mine. At least hardly enough for it to develop into a part of my identity as a youngster.

The thing is, for some people it can have been life and I ponder if it’s a time-honored tradition that continues to this present day. Among my friends, none of us appear to have time to show on a Bluetooth speaker and crank up the “Cleaning Music” playlist, and we smile as a family as the scent of Fabuloso transports us to a spotless home. Plus, I used to be 10 years old today after I learned there was a brand called Spic and Span. I’d never understood that term before.

Anyway, do families still wake up on Saturdays and put their kids to work while Babyface, SWV, or Usher play in the background? It looks as if such a pleasant, easy aspect of life that creates bonds and memories at home. I’d prefer to attempt to bring back the old one, but even now I actually have to go away to drive one kid across town to a different before picking up one other. Who has time to clean up the family when everyone must be somewhere all the time?

Am I alone?

As more singles search for love online, research shows that black and Asian singles face greater disadvantages in comparison with their peers.

2024 study revealed that black Tinder users received fewer likes in comparison with their white counterparts. The data also shown that Asian men, like Black men and women, are ranked lower than all other groups on apps like OkCupid.

The results show how dating apps allow people to quickly filter out those that are different from themselves. This ties into age-old matchmaking norms, in which singles met through friends or family.

“The way couples meet is becoming an incredibly important battleground for reinforcing distinctions across racial, ethnic and social class lines,” said Reuben Thomas, a sociologist on the University of New Mexico. he said Faith Hill of . “While apps can be isolating, they are “a huge threat to those boundaries.”

Those brave enough to stay anonymous use filters to avoid people of certain races, while unconscious biases often influence who they decide to swipe right on. Jennifer Lundquist, a sociologist on the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, says that sifting through the myriad options on a dating app can lead people to make snap judgments—often based on stereotypes—that they may not make in the event that they met someone face-to-face.

Research as well will be seen that the app’s algorithms, which remain partially undisclosed, are likely to pair users based on common characteristics. But dating apps offer a greater probability of connecting with others who’re different from themselves.

“Very few people have truly diverse networks that actually match the diversity you see on dating apps,” said Reuben Thomas, a sociologist on the University of New Mexico.

Luke Brunning, a lecturer on the University of Leeds, suggests removing barriers that encourage people from different backgrounds to interact and connect.

“Having people using the same public transportation and the same parks, swimming pools, public facilities won’t integrate society overnight,” Brunning said. “But it will have some incremental positive impact that it certainly wouldn’t have had if things had gone differently.”

AND model by researchers Josue Ortega and Philipp Hergovich predicted that simply increasing exposure to people of various races would result in a rise in interracial marriage. That echoes quite a few studies in which participants express appreciation for the “opening up of social possibilities” that dating apps offer, said Gina Potarca, a lecturer on the University of Liverpool.