Dorinda Clark-Cole - Bio

DORINDA CLARK-COLE

I Survived

This little light of hers… Try as you may, you won’t find one picture of the beautiful Dorinda Clark-Cole where she isn’t glowing. Ever radiant, the renowned gospel singer has a way of exuding luminance—as if an inner fire burned brightly within her.

Such angel shines like never before on I Survived, the acclaimed singer’s fourth solo outing and first for Light Records, her new label home. I Survived is the next chapter in the life and times of Dorinda, an effort with all the class and sophistication that have characterized her since her breakout as one-fourth of the legendary Clark Sisters.

Not one to do things on a small scale, Clark-Cole called on production assists from three greats for I Survived: longtime Mary Mary producer Warryn Campbell, who manned the boards for the studio portion; famed gospel knobturner Asaph Ward, who deftly handled the live component.

“I’m going into this whole new phase of Dorinda,” says Clark-Cole of all the hard work that’s gone into I Survived and her multiple ventures, which include, among other things, a TV show, a radio program, a popular clothing line, and a jewelry collection. “I’m going into a place where I’m more settled as an artist and minister and entrepreneur. I can actually now see things working on their own.”

This self-assuredness is evident in tracks like the blazing, Campbell-produced title track, a banger that happens to be the first single and is simply ready-made for the summer. Over an infectious, B3-accented beat that subtly samples the Clark Sisters original “No Other Name,” Clark-Cole sings of her desire to give back to God what is rightly His.

With that same spirit, Clark-Cole rejoices in the celebratory “This Is Why,” a song that enumerates the reasons one ought to give praise to God for. Similarly, the contagious hand-clapper “He Brought Me” is a frenzied floor-stomper that pays homage to Clark-Cole’s Church of God in Christ upbringing. And “Holy One” is as congregational as they come — a call to worship that extols the virtues of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

And those are just the fast-paced numbers. As things slow down, the swaying “God Will” —a refashioning of the classic hymn “God Will Take Care of You”— stands tall as one of the album’s centerpieces, thanks to Clark-Cole’s commanding lead vocal, a potent backing choir, and the song’s timeless message of God’s unerring protection and provision.

“Everything that the devil stole, I want to give back to Him,” says Clark-Cole of I Survived, giving a clever nod to one of her concert staples, “Take It Back,” from her third album by the same name. “This record is my way of giving back.”

Clark-Cole has much to be thankful for. In March 2010, calamity literally knocked at her front door when, in a bizarre turn of events, her home in Southfield, Michigan, was engulfed in flames and nearly burned entirely to the ground.

“When I got home and I saw the damage, of course I cried,” recalls Clark-Cole, who was in Los Angeles when she received that fateful phone call from her husband announcing the fire. “But I wasn’t crying that the house was messed up. I cried because I knew my kids were alright. It was tears of joy.”

The next 10 months were a period of adjustment for the singer and her family. Since the house was in unlivable conditions, they were forced to rent and live out of suitcases while repair work was taking place.

Today, the family is back home, and all Clark-Cole is determined to do is give credit where credit is due. “I got it all back, and now I’m giving it all back to Him,” she says. This reciprocity, very much biblical in scope— “To whom much is given, much is expected…”— explains why there is simply no stopping Dorinda.

After two long-overdue GRAMMY® Awards, a handful of Stellars, a Soul Train Lady of Soul statuette, and a roomful of accolades both artistic and spiritual after decades in music and ministry, you’d think this veteran of contemporary gospel is ready to rest on her laurels. But truth is, she’s only getting started.

Among other enterprises, her radio show, Serving Up Soul With Dorinda Clark-Cole, serves 47 markets and counting. She can also be seen on the TCT network on her own lifestyle television program, The Dorinda Show, presently viewable in millions of homes via DirecTV. Add to that the successful Rose Collection for Terramina— Clark-Cole’s own couture line of dresses and suits for women — as well as Dorinda Jewelry Selections — an elegant line of jewelry inspired by the singer herself — and you have an artist who is as multifaceted as she is hardworking: a renaissance woman.

Born Dorinda Grace Clark, she and sisters Jacky Clark-Chisholm, Elbertina “Twinkie” Clark-Terrell, and Karen Clark-Sheard rose to fame as The Clark Sisters, one of the most popular groups in the history of contemporary gospel music. Together, they helped hone the inimitable “Clark sound,” an intricate harmonic blend that would go on to influence scores of performers in the worlds of R&B, pop, hip-hop and beyond.

As early as five years old, Clark-Cole took to the church stage and alongside her sisters learned at the feet of their mother, church-music matriarch Mattie Moss Clark, under whose watchful eye and guidance the girls polished their skill and stage presence. The work ethic instilled in them by their mother served the Sisters well throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s, helping them to earn scores of fans and hits, including the career-defining smash “You Brought the Sunshine.”

Clark-Cole, in fact, took center stage on “Overdose of the Holy Ghost,” the electrifying B-side to “Sunshine,” cementing her as a vocal force within the group— she would go on to be called the “jazzy one” of the foursome.

The songbird stuck it out with the group after sister Twinkie decided to leave to debut as a solo artist in the early ‘90s. As the Sisters’ star dimmed in the middle of that decade, Clark-Cole became more involved in ministry at the Clarks’ lifelong denomination, the Church of God in Christ, where she also held various administrative and music-related titles both regionally and nationally. To this day, she remains heavily involved in the organization as Assistant Elect Lady of Evangelism and Assistant Supervisor of the North-Central Jurisdiction of Michigan COGIC.

Clark-Cole stepped out as a solo artist in 2002 with the release of her self-titled debut on GospoCentric, a disc that yielded the hits “I'm Coming Out” and the showstopping “I'm Still Here.” She issued the live follow-up, The Rose of Gospel, in 2005, and the all-studio Take It Back appeared in 2008. While the singer earned acclaim and a number of awards for this solo material, it took a historic reunion with the Clark Sisters in 2006 for the smash comeback album, Live: One Last Time, for Clark-Cole to score her first two GRAMMY® Awards —no small feat, considering her more than two decades in music and ministry.

Today, Clark-Cole couldn’t be more content and grateful for how far God has brought her in all these years, whether in the good times or the bad.

“I Survived a lot of things”, says Clark-Cole, as she looks back on a life well-lived. “It’s my time to give back to all of my fans, well-wishers and supporters. I want this particular record to minister to them, something to let them know that I appreciate them for supporting me, praying for me.”

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