Singer-songwriter Shea Diamond's music exudes a rare, raw kind of emotion and beauty. As a child, she was in awe of Tina Turner and began dreaming of a pop career, often imitating her idol around the house. But after running away from home at the age of 14, Diamond eventually wound up holding up a convenience store at gunpoint to steal money for her gender transition surgery. The incident landed her in and out of men's prisons in Michigan between 1999 and 2009, and while incarcerated, she wrote the song "I Am Her."
A video of her performing the song at a Trans Lives Matter event caught the attention of pop songwriter Justin Tranter, who wound up executive producing her debut EP, "Seen It All," which came out in 2018.
Since then, the 44-year-old star has been consistently creating. In 2019, she released the antigun violence single "Don't Shoot," and she released the singles "Stand Up" and "So Lucky" in 2020. That same year, she released the single "I Am America" and told Broadway World that "at a time when our rights and our very existence are constantly under attack, #iamamerica sends a clear and direct message that we are here, we are trying to thrive and survive like anyone else. No matter what anyone says, we are just as American as mom's cherry pie."
She's continued to release music over the last few years and was also featured twice in the "Happiest Season" movie soundtrack, appearing alongside Bebe Rexha in "Blame It on Christmas."
"My music is me. My music is not pretending to be somebody else," she said to GLAAD in 2020. "My music speaks about oppression . . . It speaks about how times should change," she continued. "It speaks about how we should center ourselves, self-care. If we don't have self-care in ourselves, how can we care for anybody else?"
