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people are scared of success, and I was one that was because I didn’t want the responsibility behind it.” But Crawley, who was a teen-


age mother, is using her Sunday Best fame to help girls and young women who are strug- gling with self-esteem issues. Her foundation, The Promise, empowers minority women to find their voices. “People thought I threw my dreams away when I had my


vinced season 1 winner Crystal Aikin that she had “the goods.” Like Crawley, she was tired of the disappointments. Just months before the Sunday Best auditions, Aikin had lost a major competition in her hometown of Tacoma, WA. She was devastated, hurt. “I was done with the word competition,”


remembers Aikin. But the faith of a stranger changed her


mind. Aikin received a call from a lady who had heard her sing years ago. The lady said, “I remember how I felt hearing you sing. I just feel like you’re suppose to do this.” Aikin, an emergency room nurse, agreed


to fl y to Los Angeles where auditions were being held that upcoming weekend. She met the stranger, who was holding a place for her in line, and they walked into the auditions together. Today, Aikin is glad she took that call.


When host Kirk Franklin announced her as the season 1 winner, she couldn’t believe it. “I said, ‘Who? What? Really?’ ” The win was validation of her talent. “I could hear the spirit’s doors closing the


Bullock says. “And I don’t sleep on the fl oor anymore, I’ll tell you that much.” Y’Anna Crawley had


to be pushed to audition for the second season of Sunday Best. The Wash- ington, DC, native was a known background singer in the area, having worked with a number of artists including Glenn Jones, Mya, Raheem DeVaughn and Jennifer Lopez. But she had grown weary of auditions and competi- tions. She was tired of hearing that she had to be a size zero to make it in the music industry. “At that time in my life, I was done with the


disappointment, the letdowns,” says Crawley, 35. But when she was named the season 2 win-


ner of Sunday Best, she saw the dream she had always envisioned come true. “It was like my life just changed right


before me,” says Crawley. “God had shown me this vision a long time ago, that I would be in front of thousands of people. Sometimes


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chapters that had been unresolved,” says Ai- kin, 37. “If there was ever any non-assurance of your gift or any insecurity, doors closed. It was doors closed to any fear. Doors closed to any questions for me.” The loss of the local competition


behind her, Aikin says Sunday Best has allowed her to reach an international audience. She won two Stellar Awards and a Dove Award nomination for her fi rst album and is working on her sophomore album, expected to be released in August. The emergency room nurse may no longer physically administer medicine to


son at 17,” says Crawley. “I had to get through that hurdle of being a teenage mom. I felt like I was inadequate. I didn’t think a lot of times that I measured up because of having a child and people saying ‘if you don’t go to college you’re not going to be anything.’ ” But the Sunday Best competition, she says,


helped change her perspective. Crawley’s fi rst album debuted at #2 on Billboard’s gospel charts, and she is now working on her second album, scheduled to be released this fall. “Even during the competition God was work-


ing on me,” says Crawley. “He was showing me that you are good. Like, you got the goods.” The Sunday Best competition also con-


patients, but she’s healing folks just the same. “Sunday Best is such a powerful show,”


says Aikin. “A husband and wife talked about how the show has helped them mend their relationship. I’ve had so many people talk about how they felt disconnected from their purpose, uninspired, but Sunday Best came and restored inspiration, restored purpose and restored faith.”


Tune in for season 5 of Sunday Best, which starts July 8, 8/7C!


CRYSTAL AIKIN


Y’ANNA CRAWLEY


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