Gospel Star Yolanda Adams Addresses Backlash for Wearing Form-Fitting Clothes: 'Cut It Out' (Exclusive)

“I do not have the typical gospel singer body,” says the Grammy-winning vocalist

Yolanda Adams is opening up about her experiences with beauty standards and style.

In an exclusive chat with PEOPLE about her new album Sunny Days, the platinum-selling songstress, 63, recalled some of the criticism she’s received over the years for her sense of style. Growing up, Adams says she never had any creative restrictions in her faith-based household.

“Because of the way I was raised in this very free-thinking family where everybody had their own voice and everybody had their own talents, I didn't feel any need to be anybody other than Yolanda,” says Adams. “And it was very evident, not just in the music, but in the fashions as well.”

In the world of gospel and Christian contemporary music, female artists are particularly encouraged and often expected to dress modestly. But when fashion trends began to shift from baggier, loose styles to more form-fitting clothing during her rise to the mainstream in the '90s and early '00s, Adams found her own tastes evolving. And considering her slender 6-foot stature and “free-thinking” upbringing, it should come as no surprise.

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“Because I do not have the typical gospel singer body, I think that it was easy for me to just pick out what I wanted and then just wear what I wanted,” explains Adams. “Again, I didn't grow up in a household where we had stipulations on what we could wear, what we couldn't wear, what we could listen to, what we couldn't listen to in my family.”

In 2001, Adams released her seventh studio album Believe. On the album’s front cover, Adams is photographed in a show-stopping electric blue dress by GiGi Hunter. Paired with regal accessories and a rounded neckline, the crocheted gown accentuates her modelesque figure. While the album was well-received by fans, achieving gold status the following year, the album cover sent shockwaves across the faith-based community.

But Adams says people eventually came around to it — even if they were a bit amnesiac about the cover.

“I didn't know there was a thing of ‘you can't wear this’ and ‘you shouldn't wear that’ and ‘you need to cover your head’ and stuff like that,” recalls Adams. “So when people started saying, 'I don't know about that [dress],' well…okay. And now all of a sudden, these are the same people who are now fans. And they'll say ‘I've been with her since day one.’ No, you didn't. Cut it out. Because I remember!”

Naysayers aren’t the only ones who have taken notice of Adams' beauty and style. She’s fondly known as “Thee Gospel Stallion” (a play on the also statuesque Megan Thee Stallion) by fans online, and her own peers have come to her defense, too.

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Following criticism of her cleavage-baring 2016 Stellar Awards gown, fellow gospel artist Erica Campbell — half of the famed duo Mary Mary — took to X to show Adams support, writing, "Did the saints really have a problem with Yolanda Adams dress at the Stellars," followed by, “we have to focus on our souls and not get caught up in the exterior of a person.”

Just three years prior, Adams offered Campbell that same support when Campbell faced severe backlash for a hip-hugging white gown of her own.

Steve Harvey also spoke to Adams’ physical beauty, famously quipping, “Yolanda sho’ is sexy” at the 2005 Celebration of Gospel. He chronicled this controversial moment in his 2006 docu-comedy special Don’t Trip, He Ain’t Through with Me Yet.

And while the compliment might have been deemed crass by the faith-based audience, Adams, who calls Harvey her “brother,” took it in jest and in stride.

“For him to say that, I knew he was joking. I knew he was kidding,” says Adams. “But for him to say that, it caught me by surprise, but then I started reading what people were saying too, you know, commenting on it.

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“It's like, ‘yeah, she sho' is fine. I wish she was my wife.’ No!” she continues with a laugh. “Those kinds of things. And then, of course, you had the ones that [said], ‘well, I don't know about her dressing with her shoulders out and stuff.’ Ma'am, it's the Shrine Auditorium. It is not 3rd Baptist Church on the other side of Ecclesiastes Road.”

Ultimately, Adams wants everyone to engage, exchange and exist without judgment.

“I thank God for the way I was raised because I don't have those restraints and I don't put those restraints on anybody else. When I see you, I see this loving spirit. And that's the way I want to live my life.”

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