Clifton Ross III has made it through five elimination rounds on the eighth season of BET Network’s gospel competition show “Sunday Best.” He competes in the penultimate round Sunday at 8 p.m. When not competing on reality television, the Howard University grad teaches music at Bryant Alternative School in Alexandria, Va. Here he describes his BET experience:
You know you’re at a pivotal moment in your life when the task before you requires every lesson, every skill and every ounce of courage. For me, this is the all-star season of “Sunday Best,” where contestants from previous seasons return for a second chance.
Let’s back up a bit. Season two was my first experience with “Sunday Best,” the “American Idol”-esque gospel music reality TV competition. There was an online competition and my manager and friend at the time pushed me to enter it. I’m not really competitive, and definitely not when it comes to singing, but what did I have to lose?
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Music has always been in me for as long as I can remember. I have a musical family — my mom sings, my dad and sister are musicians — and I grew up in the Detroit area with gospel music legends such as BeBe and CeCe Winans and the Clark Sisters. It’s in the water!
So I submitted a video for the online competition and tried to get as many votes as possible from my family, friends and classmates. Everyone. We made flyers. We texted people. It was the largest effort I’d ever pursued. I was one of the top two contestants, but there was no guarantee that I would make the show.
The next round was standing outside in lines of thousands of singers waiting to audition in front of the judges. I’ll pass on that, I thought. I definitely didn’t want to stand in line in the cold waiting to sing. The night before the auditions, I had a conversation with a close friend and she very gently said: ‘Cliff, I’ve never known you to be a quitter.”
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Now I had to audition. She dropped me off early in the morning. There was already a line down the street of singers, but I made the show. After becoming one of the top 10 contestants, I was eliminated in the third episode.
It has been six years since my first time on “Sunday Best,” and as much as I want to not be nervous, I am.
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This is a chance for rising artists to compete in front of thousands of viewers weekly for a grand prize of a record deal with gospel music superstar writer and producer Kirk Franklin. Previous winners include Grammy-winning Le’Andria Johnson and D.C.’s own Stellar-winner Y’Anna Crawley. This is a big opportunity, but it comes with a cost. You’re growing right in front of the world — your parents, your third-grade teacher, your neighbor. I am not the same person I was six years ago, but I remember that person and those growing pains.
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Between season two and the all-star season, I graduated from Howard University. I served as the musical director for the Howard Gospel Choir. I started working alongside giants in gospel music including my mentor, Byron Cage, as one of the musical directors at Ebenezer AME Church in Fort Washington, Md. I am a music teacher at Bryant Alternative School in Alexandria, Va. I’ve recorded new music. I sing nationally as a solo artist and as a background vocalist. My life has changed, but it seems I have unfinished business.
On July 19, I took the stage to sing my first Season 8 song “Big.” I prayed. I was centered. But the judges — seasoned gospel artists Kierra Sheard, Donnie McClurkin, Kim Burrell — were not impressed.
“I wish you the best,” Burrell said after a long pause. No warmth. No feeling. And I didn’t have to wonder if I was the only one who felt it. In what felt like seconds, there were hashtags, memes and more all over social media.
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“#SHADE”
“….you’re being voted off tonight.”
Thanks, unknown social media users. Lesson No. 1 for this season? It is okay to feel. I ended up not getting voted off, but I still had to gather what courage I had left to go for it again. And it worked. We’re down to the last two weeks of competition, and I’m still here. Sunday, I made it into the top three.
Wow, the top three. It has been a journey and in this moment I’m standing on the shoulders of so many people who believe in me and have helped me get to this place.
I don’t have a secret method. To be honest, each week I am using every lesson, every skill and every ounce of courage and pouring it out on stage. I am singing from my heart every night and I hope that people will feel it. I hope it’s enough.
“Sunday Best” airs Sunday on BET Network at 8 p.m. eastern through Aug. 30.
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