VICTOR: Mandisa, it's good to have you on the program.
MANDISA: Thank you, Victor.
VICTOR: Now, when you were here the last time around, there was a statement that you made, and I didn't have the opportunity to follow up on what you really meant by what you said. You said that shortly after your appearance on American Idol, after you left, you became a little bit more cynical.
MANDISA: Yes.
VICTOR: Was that about life or people?
MANDISA: Both.
VICTOR: Really?
MANDISA: Yeah you know, I really went through a lot on American Idol, including sort of being persecuted for my faith–
VICTOR: That was after American Idol judge Simon Cowell described you as indulgent?
MANDISA: Well, yeah. I sang a song called Shackles, which is originally done by Mary Mary. And his comment, it was very telling, he started out by saying that he didn't get it— which made all the sense in the world. But he did say that it was indulgent, meaning that it had gone too far. And singing that song sort of erupted a whirlwind of activity in my life with a lot of people saying that I was using that platform and trying to, you know, shove my faith down people's throats and – it was difficult.
So I became very cynical of people and they were, you know, I felt like they were accusing me of judging, and that they were doing the same thing to me. And so it was difficult. And I also went through quite a few struggles with the Lord as well. Just misunderstanding what His purposes were, and why he would allow me to go through such difficulties for standing up for Him, is what I felt that I was doing.
VICTOR: Was it a tough season for you?
MANDISA: Very, very tough. Probably the darkest season of my life.
VICTOR: During the contest or afterwards?
MANDISA: After my elimination. That's when interview after interview, I was questioned about my faith and what exactly I was trying to do. And I felt betrayed by the Lord. I really felt like I was trying to stand up for Him, and that He turned His back on me. And that led into a very, very deep spiral, into a pit, if you will, and me turning to food, which is what I had done for years, to try to find comfort, instead of turning to the Lord.
I've certainly learned He's the only one that can bring comfort in situations like that.
VICTOR: How did you get out of that spiral?
MANDISA: The love of God. I feel like I'm a spokesperson for grace. Because, honestly, I did everything wrong. I feel like if the Lord treated me the way that I treated Him, that He would have nothing to do with me. Because I just handled it completely wrong, and turned my back on Him. But, you know, He came to me one night and I say God spoke to me, and it wasn't an audible voice -- I joke that I think the audible voice of God probably sounds a little bit like James Earl Jones. I've never heard it, but I just think that that would be the case.
But it wasn't that, it was a sense that He was there with me. And when He came to me, He didn't say, "You really messed up." He didn't say, "You really handled this wrong." He said, "I love you." And it was in that moment I realized, gosh, we serve a loving God, that even when we mess up, even when we do everything wrong, He stands there with his arms open to receive us.
VICTOR: And as you look back in retrospect, do you think that your elimination was actually God setting you up for something else?
MANDISA: Absolutely. I mean, God was not surprised by anything. He was not caught off guard at all, and he knew exactly what was going to happen before the foundations of this world. So I know now that He had a plan in everything, and I don't think I would be sitting here today talking to you if I had won the title of American Idol. And He's taken me places that I've never even dreamt of before.
VICTOR: You've got a new CD out. It's titled "True Beauty." And you've also got a book out titled "Idol Eyes, My New Perspective on Faith, Fat and Fame."
Well, let's talk about "True Beauty" a little bit here. You know I want to talk about what's going on in the world of entertainment. In the glamour world, especially among the youth.
MANDISA: Yeah.
VICTOR: There is this obsession –
MANDISA: Yes.
VICTOR: With beauty and entertainment—the whole entertainment culture.
MANDISA: Right.
VICTOR: What do you have to say about that?
MANDISA: You know, the word you used was perfect. It's an obsession. And it comes from everything that we see in the media. It comes from the music videos we watch, it comes from magazine covers. It comes from models on the runway. I mean, we are thrown all of these images of what beauty is supposed to be, and we really need to find our definition from God. And God says it's not about our outward appearance. David you know, they say that he was not a likely one to be chosen as king, because of his appearance. But God said, "You know what, I am concerned more with the heart than I am with your outer package."
And so I just think, especially for young women, we really need to get our definition of what beauty is from the Lord, and not from the world, not from their standards. And so I wrote a song about true beauty. It's just an issue that is very important to me, because young girls are starving themselves; they are doing plastic surgery at young teenage years. And I just think it's ridiculous that we are getting our value system from the world and what their definition is, when it really should come from the Lord.
VICTOR: So for somebody who has had a national and a global platform, would you say that glamour and glitz is all that it's, you know –
(MANDISA LAUGHS) said to be.
MANDISA: It's not real. It does not exist. What you're seeing right now does not exist, let me tell you.
You know, we – as somebody who has been on magazine covers, I can tell you that the image that we see the first thing in the morning is not the image that's on those magazine covers.
Thank God for Maybelline and for all sorts of makeup. Because that does a lot and you know, not only that, but also photo shop. You can totally transfigure an image from one thing to something completely different.
VICTOR: And it's this illusion that millions are chasing after.
MANDISA: Absolutely.
VICTOR: That's why you say it doesn't exist.
MANDISA: It does not exist. I mean, you can nip and tuck and do a whole bunch of things to make yourself look like something that really doesn't show who you are at all.
So I just think that as women especially, and I know that y'all [men] feel it a little bit, too.
But especially as women, it's time out for that. We need to let the world see where our true beauty comes from.
VICTOR: What's the alternative?
MANDISA: The alternative is to let your inner light shine. I mean, I have seen people who are very physically beautiful, what the world would consider to be beautiful, but—there's no other way to say it, they're rotten on the inside. And I think that that shows. It makes them unattractive. I think that we should spend more time cultivating our inner beauty, which comes from a relationship with the Lord. And as we do that, I really do think that makes you beautiful. That's why I get phrases like, "There's just something about you." You know, "There's something I can't put my finger on. There's a glow about you." It's the Holy Spirit.
VICTOR: Yeah.
MANDISA: And that's how you cultivate true beauty is by cultivating your relationship with Him. Spend more time with the Messiah than with your manicurist is what I say.
VICTOR: Ha! Hallelujah. You know, Mandisa you just – you took the words out of my mouth actually, because watching you on American Idol, there was always something about you that was different, that shone through.
MANDISA: Thank you.
VICTOR: And seeing you on television and meeting you in person these past few weeks, has just been a wonderful joy. And you do indeed, radiate the love of God.
MANDISA: Thank you.
VICTOR: And we just want to thank you for being our guest. Our guest today has been Mandisa, and the name of her book is Idol Eyes, My New Perspective on Faith, Fat and Fame. Check it out. And her new album is True Beauty. Mandisa, thank you so much.
MANDISA: Thank you, Victor.
VICTOR: God bless you, and we wish you all the very best.
MANDISA: Thank you.
