We’re praising God because Lifetime just released the first look at The Clark Sisters: First Ladies of Gospel, the highly-anticipated biopic that depicts the journey of the singing sisters, who became the highest selling female gospel group in history.
Executive produced by Grammy Award winners Queen Latifah, Mary J. Blige and Missy Elliott the authorized biopic follows their lives as they make their way from their local choir stand to the national spotlight.
In the trailer, viewers get a glimpse of the sisters as children being awaken from their sleep to run the scales that would help them become stars by their radical mother, Mattie Moss Clark. She vows to make them “stars for Jesus,” refusing to set aside her faith for any amount of prosperity. She looks at her children in their rollers and floral housecoats and demands to know if they are going to “sing for the Lord or lay down for the Devil.”
In the trailer, we then see actress Raven Goodwin, who portrays Denise Clark Bradford, confront their mother asking if she ever took a moment to consider what her daughters wanted during the years that she was focused on their stardom. The trailer also features the sisters’ joy after receiving a Grammy Award nomination, and performing on stages across the world.
The sisters are being portrayed by some of the brightest talents in Black Hollywood. Along with Goodwin, Kierra Sheard stars as her own biological mother, Karen Clark Sheard; Christina Bell stars as Twinkie Clark-Terrell; Sheléa Frazier stars as Dorinda Clark-Cole and Angela Birchett stars as Jacky Cullum Chisholm.
Each of the five Clark sisters endured their own struggles as they fought their way to fame, the biopic details. Growing up in bleak surroundings in Detroit they experienced harsh abuse, devastating loss, shocking betrayals, and constant exclusion.
We can’t wait to see this when The Clark Sisters: First Ladies of Gospel premieres on Easter weekend, Saturday, April 11 at 8 p.m. ET/PT, on Lifetime.