You can live a wonderful life, you can love God with all your heart, and you can love your husband or wife very passionately and have a balance in your life. I live by balance.

Tramaine Hawkins has been a mentor, a confidante and an example of greatness. She has been through a lot in her life, and her career has spanned over 50 years. To me, that's what you call a legend.

I think more people in the mainstream, folks like Nancy Wilson and Luther Vandross, they have openly expressed their love for God, and when mainstream artists start expressing their love for God openly in their concerts and including gospel songs in their concert, and, you know, people started embracing it.

Gospel is just the truth of the word of God. Anybody can sing it, anybody; anybody can perform it.

Luckily, I don't have to be anybody but Yolanda, because people don't expect me to be anything other than who I am. For an artist, it's a great place to be.

I didn't grow up in one of those restrictive Christian households where you couldn't do this or that. We were brought up with a great collection of good morals and good values, but we also had fun. We'd go to church on Sunday, but then have ice cream, roller skate or play in the park afterwards.

Anyone can love you when things are alright. It takes courage to love when things are not good and it does not feel right.