La'Porsha Renae

“A lot of people I guess, well, some people change when they get in spotlights and everything, but you can take the girl out of Mississippi, but you can't take Mississippi out the girl!”

“Today, not to take away from any of the present artists, but music has gotten a little shallow, in my opinion. Everybody's talking about the same thing: sex, money, clothes, cheating... I want to open up not necessarily better conversations, but, in my opinion, more important ones, and touch on things that are actually going on.”

“I can't wait to meet Jennifer Hudson, Tamyra Gray, George Huff, Ruben Studdard, and I love me some Clay Aiken.”

“First time I sang, I was singing Alicia Keys in the bathroom of my mom's beauty shop. I was six.”

“I haven't always been confident. I actually suffered with low self-esteem growing up. Eventually, I got to a point where I was just like, 'OK, this is taking too much energy.' After that, I started accepting myself for who I was, and I was like, whoever is not going to accept it, they weren't really meant to be in my life in that way.”

“I've also gotten messages from men and women who are not the most attractive, in their minds, or are self-conscious about their weight. They're thanking me for doing songs like 'Proud Mary' and shaking a tailfeather, because they say I seem real comfortable in my skin and it made them want to be comfortable in theirs.”

“My ex-husband didn't like my singing. He didn't like my hair. He hated my eyes. Everything. Everything he complimented me on when we first met, he just hated.”

“The reaction that I got from 'Diamonds' I would have expected to get from 'House of the Rising Sun' or one of the other songs.”

“What made 'American Idol' different from 'The Voice' and all these other singing competitions... 'American Idol' just gave regular old normal people like me and like Trent a chance.”

“Anyone is welcome to hang out with me and have fun or sit down with me and talk. I don't discriminate against anyone. And I don't condone hating someone or treating them badly because they live differently than I do.”

“Labels, boxes, and politically correct terminology all seem small and irrelevant when being compared to the violent and brutal attacks on the lives of people who are different than what society says we should be.”

“I decided to be heterosexual because I felt like that's the life God intended me to live.”

“The kind of artist I would like to be is definitely versatile. I don't like being boxed in or put into a genre, so to speak.”

“I come from really humble people. We never had a lot.”

“I found a belief system that worked for me, and I said, you know what, 'I actually do want to give being with men another chance.'”

“I stay true to myself, my daughter. I just remember where I came from - I remember what I'm coming from - and then I remember why I do what I do.”

“When I saw how people would react and be touched by my voice, this was the moment I thought maybe there's something more to this than just singing around the house.”