THE CLARK SISTERS

Is My Living In Vain, Expect a Miracle, Endow Me and the prodigious crossover Gold-certified hit, You Brought The Sunshine are just a few songs that changed the contemporary face of gospel music. It’s not hard to guess that five beautiful women from Detroit known as The Clark Sisters rocked our world with those songs and hundreds more over their 45 plus year career.

The Clark Sisters have stood the test of time, thanks to their mother Dr. Mattie Moss Clark, who paved the way for her “girls” and taught them how to be the best at their craft.“My mom is responsible for giving me my start and teaching me how to play and write. When I was younger I was under a lot of pressure because I had to travel with Mama and make sure I learned all of the music and play all over the world. Mama always made sure we gave God our best and that we had a high level of expectation to achieve. My sisters were able to go skating and have boyfriends, while I had to rehearse and prepare for our next concert or workshop,” says Twinkie Clark, on the early years and their rise to stardom.

No strangers to both the mainstream and gospel charts with hit after hit, it is safe to say that the iconic Clark Sisters are here to stay. With sixteen albums and three Grammy® awards, the sisters find themselves the talk of the industry with the release of their 2019 single entitled Victory and a highly anticipated biopic, The Clark Sisters: First Ladies of Gospel, executive produced by Queen Latifah, Missy Elliot and Mary J. Blige, who is a great friend of The Clark Sisters, and even appears on Jacky’s latest single.“Mary has been like a little sister to all of us down through the years and I was honored when she agreed to be apart of my single, Feel Good. Down through the years our music and personal relationship has helped her through many of life’s challenges, so to see her stronger and free has been a blessing to me,” says Jacky Clark-Chisholm, who suffered a major loss when her husband of 46 years, Glenn, passed away last fall. We asked Jacky how she was coping with the sudden loss of her husband.“We are taking our new reality day by day. This has been a very difficult journey and I am learning to trust God in a whole new way. I have never lived on my own, I went from my mother’s house to my home with my husband and I never imaged living alone without my husband. I am so honored to have been married to the same amazing man for 46 years. He was a great husband, father and my best friend. I wish he was here to see everything that is happening for the Clark Sisters, as he has been apart of our journey since we first began. Everyday since his transition has been new for me and there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about him.”

It has been 14 years since gospel music’s most adored quartet has released new music but fans always knew that they had more left in them.“We thought Live One Last Time was it for us, but we are all still in good health and we believe God has given us this time of favor and we are excited to walk in it. This season is also encouraging us that God has not forgotten about the 45 years of ministry we have given to the world,” says Karen Clark Sheard, the youngest of the sisters.

The Twinkie Effect

Whether R&B, Pop or Gospel, The Clark Sisters have changed the way we listen and view female groups. Their unique sound and approach to harmony and ad libs, literally paved the way for groups like The Anointed Pace Sisters, Witness, Z’iel, Destiny’s Child and Xscape. In fact, their music is so popular that it has been sampled by the likes of Whitney Houston, Dawkins and Dawkins, Kierra Sheard, Snoop Dogg, army J. Blige and Jay Z, just to name a few. These ladies have been ambassadors of bringing gospel music to the mainstream.“It has been such an honor to have secular artist, especially someone like Jay Z, sample my music. It has always been my goal to reach the world with my writing in hopes that my music would inspire, save and deliver someone. This has also aided in people inquiring more about The Clark Sisters and who we are,” said Twinkie.

The First Ladies of Gospel

The Clark Sisters have been trailblazers of contemporary Gospel music and from 1973 until now, these ladies have reached levels of success many dream of. Beyoncé, Kelly Rowland, SWV, Kelly Price and a plethora of other female artists attribute their sound and style to The Clark Sisters. Let’s face it, in a male dominated Industry Jacky, Dorinda, Karen, and Twinkie have earned the title legendary. With legendary status comes defying moments, like the time when their song, You Brought The Sunshine, was in heavy rotation at New York’s famed Studio 54. The song was so popular that as legend would have it, the owner of the club offered the ladies a boat load of money to perform that one song at the club but their mom, Dr. Mattie Moss Clark, forbid them to do so. According to Dorinda Clark Cole, there were other defining moments even bigger than Studio 54.“I would have to say the most defining moment of our career was when we won our three Grammy® Awards. With any artist or group, that is always something you inspire to accomplish and once we finally won, it was one of the best feelings ever. The first time we heard our first single on the radio was another amazing moment for us because people really started to know who The Clark Sisters were.”

A few month ago, Lifetime released the official trailer for the highly anticipated biopic and out gospel music icons - The Clark Sisters. The film stars gospel newcomer, Christina Bell as Twinkie, Sheléa Frazier as Dorinda, Raven Goodwin as Denise, Angela Birchett as Jacky and Kierra Sheard as her mom, Karen.“We are so excited for the world to see our story. It is a story of victory and defeat. This has been an amazing journey and we want the world to be inspired by our story and know that they can make it with God. You will also get to see how we learned how to sing, harmonize and blend together as group,” said Sheard. When asked about how she felt about her daughter Kierra portraying her on screen, she screamed with excitement,“OMG! It was like a dream to see my only daughter playing me. It literally brought tears to my eyes. She called me so many times asking me questions about my life and how I sung different parts. It was such an honor to witness and she made me proud as always. I can’t wait for the world to see Kierra as an actress and how much her vocal ability has evolved.”

Dr. Mattie Moss Clark

Seasoned veteran actress Aunjanue Ellis is no stranger to the big or small screen, as she has starred in films and television shows such as: Men of Honor, Ray, The Taking of Pelham 123, The Birth of a Nation, True Blood, The Practice and an Emmy nominated performance for the Netflix miniseries When They See Us. Her portrayal of Dr. Mattie Moss Clark will make you do a double take. Her mannerisms, glasses and striking resemblance was enough to make Moss Clark’s real life children pause, as they saw a reincarnation of their mom by way of Aunjanue Ellis.“From the moment she walked in the room to meet us, we all started crying and it was like an overwhelming experience for all of us. She walked, talked and spoke just like Mama. The fact that they really found someone that could really be our mom, left us all speechless. I have to say she did an amazing job and we can’t wait for you all to see more,” said Dorinda.

With a movie and new project streaming worldwide, The Clark Sisters don’t show any signs of slowing down and if their mom was here, she would certainly be proud of her girls getting back together to do the one thing they love the most, and that’s sing.“We actually never stopped singing since our last project, but one of Mama’s final wishes to us was to stick together and that’s what we’ve managed to do. So of course she would be elated to see that her prayers are still being answered,” Twinkie went on to say. The Clark Sisters Legacy

It’s hard to believe that The Clark Sisters are being honored for the first time in Stellar Award history at this years awards show, but everything comes in God’s time. Even when asked about the movie being long overdue, the legends were still very humble about all of the success, both past and present.“It has been a long time coming, we have been working on this project for over 10 years and with the vision and persistence of our executive producer, Holly Carter and her team, God has brought us to this point. We know everything has a time and season and we believe we are in God’s divine timing.”And when asked if we will still get that Clark Sisters sound on the new project, Jacky went on to say, “We think you will get a little of our classic sound and a little bit of a more fresher sound, especially with the help of our team of amazing producers and songwriters.”

After April 11, 2020, millions of people will bear witness to the greatness that is The Clark Sisters. Hopefully the world will see what we, as gospel music enthusiast, have seen all along.According to Twinkie Clark, “It should definitely allow our story to be told and prayerfully encourage people to know that we face the same life challenges as everyone but through God, we overcame. I pray that as we live off the legacy of our mother, Dr. Mattie Moss Clark, our children can live off of our legacy one day.”