PRIDE PREVIEW:
SHEA DIAMOND
As we prep our Pride 2022 special, we revisit this piece on an extraordinary artist who creates soul-rooted music of resistance and liberation.
“It is a compilation of my life experiences,” Shea Diamond says of her 2017 debut EP, Seen It All. “It speaks on the rejection from religion, the rejection from family and having to be all right by yourself, you know what I mean? After the world has shunned you and said, ‘Look, we don’t want you,’ you have to want yourself.”
Seen It All, which was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award, introduced the world to an artist with an extraordinary story—and, most importantly, the ability to turn that story into a powerful, universal musical vision. “I’m not a stranger,” she sings on the pointed “American Pie.” “I’m just like you.”
And yes, Shea (pronounced “she-uh”) is a Black trans artist. That fact naturally informs her work and sensibility, but the power of that work has taken her to this place.
Shea’s debut was executive-produced by hitmaker Justin Tranter, who notes, “When I brought her out to L.A. to work together, I was blown away within the first couple of minutes. Vocally, her tone is magical; it’s so rich and so beautiful. Every time she opens her mouth to sing, you believe every word. And in terms of songwriting, she’s a real storyteller.”
Shea has also made a mark as a captivating live performer, winning fans from Sam Smith and Demi Lovato to Pete Buttigieg and Joe Biden.
Born in Little Rock and raised in Memphis and Flint, Mich., Shea creates soul-rooted music of resistance and liberation. Her talent and spirit have enabled her to weather seemingly insurmountable odds and challenges. The repressive environment of her youth, she confides, caused her to regularly contemplate suicide; she ran away from home at age 14. At 17, she hit her lowest point, which ultimately led to her emancipation.
Finding herself broke, desperate and with no other options to finance life-saving gender-affirmation surgery, Shea committed armed robbery, was convicted and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. While incarcerated, she found her voice and developed her craft as a songwriter. Upon her release, Shea moved to New York to pursue music. An a cappella clip of her singing and performing at a Black Trans Lives Matter event eventually made its way to Tranter—and led to a label deal with Asylum.
She continued to tell her uncompromising stories, as on 2019’s devastating anti-violence anthem “Don’t Shoot,” with its refrain, “That’s a lot,” enumerating the struggle and tragedy she’d endured throughout her life.
More recently, Shea has released a string of sync-powered singles, beginning with the Tranter-co-written and Eren Cannata-produced 2020 party track “I Am America,” which is the theme to the HBO unscripted series We’re Here starring Bob the Drag Queen, Eureka O’Hara and Shangela Laquifa Wadley. Later that year, she dropped “So Lucky,” the theme song to HBO Max’s Equal, a docuseries on the origin stories of the LGBTQ+ movement. This April, Shea released “Presence of a Legend,” created for filmmaker Luchina Fisher’s documentary, Mama Gloria, which tells the life story of Chicago Black transgender icon Gloria Allen. Shea also blew minds with her explosive rendering of the Ten Years After rock classic “I’d Love to Change the World” for the ABC docuseries When We Rise.
Is Shea on the way to becoming a legend in her own right? We wouldn’t be remotely surprised. In the meantime, she’ll keep singing her truth. Shea’s new single, “Smile,” dropped on 6/18.
