Dorinda Grace Clark-Cole (bornDorinda Grace Clark; October 19, 1957) is an American Grammy Award-winninggospel singer, songwriter, musician, talk show host, andevangelist. Clark–Cole is best known as a member of family vocal groupThe Clark Sisters and as a daughter of pioneering choral directorMattie Moss Clark. As a member of The Clark Sisters, Clark–Cole has won twoGrammy Awards. She is known to the music world as theRose of Gospel Music.

Clark–Cole was born on October 19, 1957, and raised in Detroit, Michigan,^[1] to the late Elbert andDr. Mattie Moss-Clark. Clark–Cole began singing at an early age with her sistersKaren,Twinkie,Jacky, andDenise. The sisters sang in their father's church and usually performed songs written and composed by their mother. Clark-Cole, asoprano referred to as the "jazzy sister" of the group, helped develop what is known as "The Clark Sound", which often features high and fastmelismas,riffs, runs,scats, and soulfulgrowls. Clark–Cole attributes her fiery, convicting singing style to her mother, who saw the gift of singing and preaching in her at an early age. Back in the 1960s and 1970s, when other children their age were playing outside, Clark–Cole and her sisters had to work on their familial harmonies.

Clark–Cole says, "We made a lot of sacrifices. My mom was a stickler for making sure we rehearsed before we went out to perform. She saw the gifts and talents within us and started shaping and molding us. She taught us discipline along with how to use our gifts."^[2] Clark sang lead on "Overdose of the Holy Ghost", as well as on "My Redeemer Liveth", the B-side to The Clark Sisters' biggest single "You Brought the Sunshine".^[3]

Clark-Cole's self-titled solo debut,Dorinda Clark-Cole, released in June 2002 on Gospo Centric Records/Zomba Label Group, won twoStellar Awards and aSoul Train Lady of Soul Award. The album featured the hit single "I'm Coming Out". Her second album,The Rose of Gospel, was released under the same label in August 2005. The album debuted inBillboard's top 5 on the Gospel charts and garnered a Grammy Nomination for the Best Traditional Soul Gospel album and won 2007 and 2009 Stellar Award for the Best Female Artist of the Year. The live portions of both albums were produced byAsaph Ward.

After being pushed back from a prematurely stated date in late 2007,^[4] Clark–Cole's third solo album, also released on Gospo Centric Records/ Zomba Label Group,Take It Back, was released on April 15, 2008.^[5] ProducersAlex "Asaph" Ward, PAJAM, and Rodney Jerkins contributed to the project. In 2009, Dorinda released a six-song (EP) album entitledIn The Face of Change on September 21. It included hit songs such as "Change" written by her son Jay Cole and "BAMM" which was a "Verizon Select". Released on her own ministry label, "Harvestime Ministries", the album was never heard of until she announced it the day of its release. A video on YouTube has a preview of all of the new songs on the record.^[6]Another solo project,I Survived, was released in August 2011 under a new label,Light Records. The project also contains duet titled "Thank You" with her sister,Twinkie Clark. Clark–Cole was featured on the title track of Kirk Franklin'sHero album.^[7] In early 2009, Clark–Cole performed "Nothing but the Truth" for the Sojourner Truth unveiling on Capitol Hill for First Lady Michelle Obama and other officials. As a member of the Clark Sisters, Clark–Cole won three Grammys in 2008.Live – One Last Time won the Best Traditional Gospel Album. Its album track, "Blessed & Highly Favored", won the Best Gospel Performance as well as the individual Best Gospel Song. With the group she appeared nationally onThe Tonight Show with Jay Leno, ABC'sThe View, Bobby Jones Gospel, Lift Every Voice, Gospel Superfest, TBN's Praise the Lord, The Stellar Awards and The Lady of Soul Awards.

Clark-Cole has been evangelizing and making speaking engagements annually for over 30 years, along with her singing career and being a wife and mother. Clark–Cole married Gregory Cole on December 2, 1978, and together they now have 2 children, Nikkia Cole-Beach and Gregory "Jay" Cole Jr. Dr. Cole also has two grandchildren. Clark–Cole ministers nationally as well as internationally in countries such as England, Japan, Germany, France, Korea, and South Africa. She made history in South Africa, having been the first woman to minister in the pulpit to over 4,000 people. Clark-Cole is a staple in theChurch of God in Christ of which she is a licensed National Evangelist, Assistant State Mother for the Michigan North Central Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction,Former Vice-President of The Music Department and in 2016, was appointed by Former Presiding Bishop Charles E. Blake as the Elect Lady of the COGIC's International Evangelism Department. She taught at theClark Conservatory of Music in Detroit and is an administrator of ministry at the Greater Emmanuel Institutional COGIC.

Clark-Cole's preaching ministry has also gained interest within academic spaces. According to scholar of religion Ashon Crawley, By attending to the Black Pentecostal aesthetics of whooping found in Clark-Cole's "Why Do I Come Back for More" sermon, Clark-Cole's homily is examined as producing the worship space as a discontinuous and open sonic space, open to the other voices that both proceeded her moment of being overcome with Spirit -such that other women gathered around, held and hugged her -and extended the preacherly moment by sociality, through opening up and diffusing the very grounds for the concept, for preaching, for listening, for breathing. Crawley would go on to offer a reading of Clark-Cole's whooping that places the fundamental quality of such aesthetic sociality, not in the fact that it can be shared but in the fact that it must be shared by all, for vitality, for life. This sharing in and as commons, Crawley argues, enacts violence against any form of marginalization or oppression.^[8]

Clark–Cole is the new host of TCT Network'sDorinda Show, co-host of TCT's Celebrate on the Road, former Stellar Awards host, guest judge on Verizon's "How Sweet The Sound" national televised competition, and the former spokes-model for Donna Vinci Clothing, and her "Rose Collection" is now distributed by Terra Mina Fashions. She has since partnered withMR. SONG, a fashion designer of Detroit, in creating The Bloom Collection, a couture collection of hat adorning accessories. She is national radio host ofServing Up Soul with Dorinda Clark Cole which syndicates to 50 affiliated radio stations. She is also the Founder and CEO of Lifeline Productions Inc., which holds an annual Singers & Musicians Conference. Through this conference it is her goal to educate a new generation of ministers of the importance of "keeping ministry in the music" by offering various activities including daily workshops and evening worship services featuring from artists whose ministries have gone beyond ministering in song. In September 2004 she received an honorary Doctorate of Divinity from Mt. Carmel Theological Seminary of Fresno, California.^[9]

Clark–Cole says that if she did not have a career in music that she would be "dancing onBroadway", and her dream would be "to sing withBette Midler,Cher andCeline Dion".^[10] She is currently represented by Keith Douglas, CEO of RKD Music Management in Los Angeles, California.

• "Hero (featuring Dorinda Clark Cole)" –Kirk Franklin (fromHero)
• "Tis So Sweet" – Dorinda Clark Cole (fromBuild A Bridge)
• "Higher Ground" –Missy Elliott,Karen Clark Sheard,Kim Burrell,Mary Mary,Dorinda Clark Cole, andYolanda Adams (fromMiss E... So Addictive) (Elektra, 2001)
• "It Will All Be Worth It" –Mary Mary feat. Gospel Legends (fromThe Sound)
• "I'm Wrapped in You (featuring Dorinda Clark Cole)" –Bishop Eddie L. Long (fromThe Kingdom, Vol. 1 (feat. GW's))
• "Still Mighty, Still Strong (feat. Dorinda Clark Cole)" –Youthful Praise,Resting on His Promise (2009)
• "This is That" & "Luke 5" (Feat. Dorinda Clark Cole) – (Robi Rivers Presents The Voices of Calvary, LIVE 2015, Rivers of Melody Music Label)
• "Who's On The Lord's Side" (Feat. Dorinda Clark Cole) –Byron Cage, Malaaco 50th Anniversary 2018, Malaaco Records)

TheBET Awards are awarded annually by theBlack Entertainment Television network. Dorinda Clark-Cole has received 2 nominations.

TheBMI Trailblazers of Gospel Music Awards are awarded annually. Clark-Cole has been recognized once and honored once.^[36][37]

TheDove Awards are awarded annually by theGospel Music Association. Clark-Cole has won 2 awards from 12 nominations.^[38][39]

TheGrammy Awards are awarded annually by theNational Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Dorinda Clark-Cole has won 3 awards from 10 nominations, including a Lifetime Achievement award.^[40][41][42]

TheNAACP Image Awards are awarded annually by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Dorinda Clark-Cole has won 2 awards from 4 nominations.

TheSoul Train Music Awards are awarded annually. Dorinda Clark-Cole has received 1 award.

TheStellar Awards are awarded annually by SAGMA. Dorinda Clark-Cole has received 15 awards and 2 honorary awards.^{[44][45][46][47]}

• Dorinda Clark Cole Official Site

• 1957 births
• Living people
• African-American Christians
• American gospel singers
• Singers from Detroit
• American evangelists
• Women evangelists
• American Pentecostals
• 21st-century American singers
• 20th-century American singers
• Members of the Church of God in Christ
• 21st-century American women singers
• 20th-century American women singers
• African-American women musicians
• The Clark Sisters members
• Moss–Clark–Sheard family

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