CULTURE

Diana GORDON

Move over Beyoncé, there’s a new queen in town

“It’s different to what you see on TV; nowhere near as glamorous as people think. I sat in this tight dress for four hours with no food,” explains Diana Gordon, describing the 2017 Grammy Awards where Beyoncé’s Lemonade (which Gordon co-wrote and produced tracks on) was nominated for Album of the Year. “It was my first Grammys and it felt like prom. I was inches from Adele.”

Gordon, 34, grew up in Jamaica, Queens, New York, in a Christian household and was the middle child of six. “I come from humble beginnings,” she says. “Mum was the disciplinarian of the house and she taught all of us how to work for everything we have.” And work she did. At 15 the singer/songwriter wrote “Daddy’s Song” (the first of many) and went on to attend LaGuardia High School where she discovered her musical talent. Just a few years later, while working as a coat check girl in a nightclub in Brooklyn, she was given her big break in