The Unleashed Voice July – August PRIDE Issue Exclusive Interview!
Releasing her debut EP, “Seen It All” — nearly a decade following release from a men’s prison after a desperate crime to obtain means of transitioning to her true gender — singer/songwriter Shea Diamond (as in, “She a Diamond”) reflects on unearthing and flaunting her truest self, and on the universal love that’s missing to encourage so many others to live just as authentically.
TUV Editor Whitney Johnson and Shea chatted for a personal and upclose interview to gather her inspiring fairy tell story.
Q: How did you discover music as your outlet for expression?
A: The theater turned me on because I was always playing a character. I had to always pretend to be something that I wasn’t, or I would get my ass whipped. So I had to pretend to be a certain way, for survival. So I learned. I learned where they could see through the mask. If you had your voice low and you had your legs open, but you still talk with your hands… then they’ve caught you (2018 July – August Pride issue has remaining interview answer).
Q: How did you come into the name Shea Diamond?
A: The name given to me when I was born, the name I paid a whole lot of money to give back — that was the person that people loved. They didn’t love me. Who I was brought shame to them. They were saying, “You can be anything you want to. Just don’t be no girl.” They told me that I wouldn’t be successful as a trans woman, that I wouldn’t make it, that I was wrong, that I was going to hell. We’ve demonized the existence of trans people, gay people, every spectrum in-between (2018 July – August Pride issue has remaining interview answer ).
Q: Was there a time when you believed what you’d been told, that you wouldn’t succeed?
A: Yes. Yes, yes.
Check out Shea Diamond’s introspective single “I Am Her”, her latest flirty single “Keisha Complexion”, and her debut EP “Seen It All” on:
http://instagram.com/iamsheadiamond
http://facebook.com/iamsheadiamond
Subscribe to TUV Magazine at www.tuvmag.com to stay in the know with all people and things “Unleashed.”
Follow us TUV Magazine on our social media sites:
https://www.facebook.com/tuvmagazine
https://www.instagram.com/tuvmagazine
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLF18I07HAGdMdX9sFX0naA
