Sunday Diva/Three From The Hip: Chanté Moore

Sunday Diva/Three From The Hip: 

Chanté Moore

In my own personal big gay church, there is a wing dedicated to what can only be described as...The True Divas. These are ones that may do many things in life, but from the moment they opened their mouths to sing they became the one thing they were meant to become: a true diva.

One such soulful beauty?

Chanté Moore

This empress of saucy seduction can either go all quiet storm...

...or get your feet moving toward the dance floor.

There's a 'knowing' to her voice. It comes deep from within and sails forth like a dove taking flight.

And music lovers are not the only ones who could not resist her siren call.

The lady married four times...

But she has always been her own woman.

Still, our diva did have some personal work to do. She met it head on and dealt with her past.

Then she found a spiritual path that worked for her and life has been magical ever since.

The gospel according to her?

Well, here are three from the hip, dropping from her lips.

The Topic?

"I think that's what I was put here to do. Talk about my own life and my own views. I like to be able to expose my experiences so that people know they are not alone."

"Growing up in a Christian family, you would have thought what happened to me would never happen because my mother loved me and she was very much aware of who I am, but I was a very mature little girl. And at 14, I was allowed to have a crush on a man who was 21. And because he was worldly, and had money, and he'd been in the Navy, you know, and I was, like, all little girls seek older men and we go, Oh my God, he's so cute. Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God."

"Somehow in there my father wasn't watching, my mother was watching very closely and thought she could handle the situation and she allowed this relationship to happen. It should not have happened. I should not have been allowed to date a man, it made me have insecurities at an early age that I should never have had, but a man who could manipulate a little girl's mind and her heart. He was allowed to do things he shouldn't have done."

"Well, I've been through a lot. People don't like talking about things that hurt. Usually we like to skip over that stuff because it brings up something that's unpleasant, but honestly it's the only way that I feel like some of those things have purpose because of somebody else's journey. And I really believe, you know, the quote from the Scriptures that says, all things work together for my good. All things work together for my good, not just the stuff I liked, not just the stuff that felt really great in the highs in my life that were wonderful, even not selling records has worked for my good because my ego is not in a place where you can't be in the same room with me and fit."

"I'm not in a place that when I see an unwed mother at 17, that I go, she probably didn't have no mama that cared about her. I had a mama that cared and I could have been that girl. And because of knowing that it could have been me, when I see them the emphatically in heart is different than somebody else's who doesn't know what it's like to be that girl whose been manipulated and her innocence stolen from her. It was stolen from me, and I know what that feels like. And you feel by yourself, you feel damaged goods."

"It happens to so many women - black, white, yellow, orange, green whatever it is. We all been in places where we've been victimized in some kind of way, usually."

"The difference is me! The difference is time, growth, pain, menopause, quarantine was a big deal as well. These things teach us how to maneuver through life. They are the hardest and the best part of our lives because that’s were real life happens. We think that we have it all figured out but we don’t. It really is one day at a time and not knowing what comes next. It’s all about dealing with it as it comes. We can’t have it all figured out. Even if we do, it’s not going to always work out the way that we thought."

"There are so many clichés that can be said but all means all. All things work together for the good. It works for you. It’s not against you. Even if something negative happens; from a death in the family, to your career not going the way you would like it to, or the love of your life not being there at all you, or you leaving them and then leaving too, a child dying or a pregnancy that you didn’t want. I don’t know what it is. You have to trust in God. If you trust in him. I know I trust in God’ and it’s not my job to make anybody believe in him. But I know what I’m supposed to declare and believe in. It’s about not being defined by your circumstances. I tell myself this all the time. If you choose wisely, you’ll end up somewhere better than before. Instead of saying I hate this, and I hate that. I woke up in a pit of depression regretting everything and so angry. Then I realized that I was angry at me. I’m not angry at o anyone else but myself. I chose everything that happened to me. I said I would be here. I said I’m not going to work here. I said I’m going to be with this or that. Choose wisely."

Love's Taken Over - Chanté Moore

Chanté's Got A Man - Chanté Moore

Real One - Chanté Moore

And one last parting shot...

"Keeping my integrity is what I think about it. You just do your job and you do it well, and you keep your integrity. And I don't sing anything I wouldn't be able to sing in front of my children. I don't sing anything I wouldn't be able to sing in front of my pastor. People fall in love whether you're, you know, at the church or if you're in the club. You do fall in love the same way - the feelings, the emotions, the things that it brings from the inside of who you are, it's the same. And I want to be sure that I sing about love and not sex."