Rising Stars: Meet April Diamond of Studio City

Today we’d like to introduce you to April Diamond.

April, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My story starts in the Inland Empire. Of Southern California. When people think of Southern California it’s usually Los Angeles and the surrounding cities. it seems like the inland Empire, which includes Riverside Corona, San Bernardino, Redlands and other cities that are in between and on the way to Palm Springs, seem to get sort of glossed over. Im proud of where I came from. as I travel between Los Angeles, Las Vegas and other major cities around the country I know where Home is 🙂

The singing started with the family sessions. My grandmother playing the organ & piano in church, my dad playing the guitar asking me to sing along and all the choirs I sang in. From elementary through high school I never missed a rehearsal, or a show or an audition… That’s what I loved. Always singing always performing.

Then off to college and changing from a business major to music. I loved APU! (Azusa Pacific University)
I had the most amazing voice teacher, she was hard on me but she taught me to be an educated, powerful, intentional, singer, and no shortcuts. She made me do everything I was supposed to do and she held me accountable. She did not let me slide on anything. I learned how to practice, I learned every necessary vocal technique for every style of singing, and she made me master it. she showed me how to stay on task and not quit. I also learned to conquer my fears from singing in front of people because we had to do juries in college as vocal majors. I was required to sing in different languages. I was not prepared for that lol, but I learned and I did it.
I traveled with the university choir touring through the US .Aftet I received my degree, I became a vocal coach. As a private Voice Coach, I was surprised at how many people knocked on my door asking me for Voice Lessons. I had a knack for it, and my vocal coach in college is the one that set me up for it. She was amazing. I owe her a lot. Brenda Reinabock.

In the process of training singers I met a producer and joined the Del Oro Music Label.

From there discovering the world of the music business was overwhelming and very interesting. it was a daily struggle to understand how to navigate from being a Voice Coach to being a singer/popstar. I felt like I was in between two worlds. And I loved it.

Navigating Los Angeles, working with choreographers and putting together a show at night, then by day training, Voice students and being a teacher/coach. I mentally had to shift back-and-forth and really prepare myself because when you get on stage as a performer, it is not the same thing.

My producer helped me find my sound. David helped me hone my skills, really taught me how to get on the mic and create a performance and be a pop singer. I learned that in the first few years while we were working on the first few singles. My background really was solid because I came from singing gospel music and then learning classical in college, doing a lot of musical theater productions and then coming back around to pop. I guess you can say in some ways that I did it all. I’ve done so many styles even Singing with my brother Billy’s rock band.
I taught myself to sing anything.
At the time it was confusing for me thinking don’t I have to pick one style? I tried to stay in one lane but the lanes always diverted to multiple other lanes. I realized, that all of these things contributed to who I was as a performer and I see now how it was a huge benefit that used it all. I used all of these things that I had learned which made me a powerful singer.

My first single lose control that cracked the billboard dance chart and hit number 27 as a new artist was teamwork for sure. My entire team Del Oro Music helped me make that happen. And for me learning how to sing that song as a Dance Artist was a whole Evolution For me. At some point, my brain would tell me why are you singing this? You’re a musical theater or a gospel singer or pop singer this is dance music. This is weird. Ha but it paid off and I finally understood the assignment. And we won.

Next up, we decided to do a remake. I sang through multiple versions and keys and ways of singing it because we felt that radio would actually like it. And we were right. we pushed very hard to get the right sound to get the right key to get the right everything. And then I brought another dynamic into the mix for my next single that we released for the first time on national radio I brought in a high school show Choir into the mix called powerhouse. The John Burroughs high school #1 one winning show Choir nationally recognized around the country as the number one show Choir. In fact, it was the first time in Radio that a charting. Artist on radio featured a high school show choir and was a feature on that track. I GOT THE MUSIC IN ME is a signature song that I will probably sing for the rest of my life. And it holds a special place in my heart. Not only because of the amazing show Choir that blew the doors off that song and recorded it in perfect Harmony sounding like the number one show Choir that they are! Plus my Grammy Winning Producer David Longoria featured on the trumpet. But It became like an anthem.
National radio ate it up!! They loved it! It’s soared to number one on 3 of the eight national new music radio charts, and the song continued staying on those charts for 24 weeks. And seeing my name on those charts with other charting artists like Jennifer Lopez, Taylor, Swift, Dua Lipa, OneRepublic, etc. that was one amazing moment in my life and I said I want this and I wanna keep going.
Wow!
That song, WON song of the year for the independent radio network. Out of 3000 submissions that song was number one!!

Was it hard yes it was hard. It was sometimes hard on relationships, my work life, my family life. The hours spent the draining of finances and beyond. The things that it takes to do what we did together as an independent artist and label was truly inspiring and nearly impossible. But I feel like God was with us, and we accomplished the impossible.
The time the money, the effort and people around me who gave up their time and didn’t ask for anything because they wanted to help me… That blew my mind. I am beyond grateful and to Brendan Jennings, the director of the JOHN Burroughs high school show choir, giving of his time and effort and allowing me to use his choir and his high school Performance theater to shoot the video and everything involved… I will be forever grateful. It is a perfect example of true teamwork and a love for music. and I love that it means something to so many people. It’s definitely not just about me. It was about everyone involved in that song coming together in a very unique way. In a powerful way and a joyful way.

Radio People were loving this, and they kept asking. When is her next song coming out?

Well, a few months later it was FEELS SO GOOD. That song spent 18 weeks on the national new music radio charts and on two of those charts went to number one for beyond three weeks. We were able to make music that people loved.

My journey is about doing things that seem impossible to me. But somehow my mind sees it and God opens the door and I’m there. Which is how my hosting show live with April Diamond came to be.
So,
Apparently, I bumped in to a TV producer on a red carpet in Vegas a few years ago. And he was following me on my Instagram watching my lives, me going live. And I started calling it live with April Diamond on Instagram. It was something that I created from the Covid days where we were all at home and I needed to keep the connection alive with my people so I just started going live. It was pretty nerve-racking in the beginning and I didn’t know what I was doing and I just started talking to people and shouting out their names and they would talk to me and I would talk back and they would ask me questions and I would respond and somehow it became a thing. It’s like I created a relationship with what I coined as a hashtag #MyFollowerFamily. We all literally became a family online. And I have to say that of all the things I do online with my hosting show and everything else that’s got to be the best part. I love chatting with thousands of people like I try to answer every question or say hello to everybody, which is impossible but it sure is fun to try
This is how I built my following. Then one day this Producer that I met in Vegas had a streaming channel called Hey Vegas TV. And he asked me if I had any interviews I’d like to do and if I had some to bring them on over to the TV station and let’s record them. So I did. We tried a couple of interviews and they seem to be popular. Hey Vegas TV grew into a bigger studio from the little studio AT the Nevada broadcasters Association to the bigger TV studio at Pompey Entertainment.
From there, I invited everyone I wanted to talk to. And they came. One of my first guests was Jeff Timmons from the boy band group 98° who lives in Las Vegas. It was such a great interview. When I posted it, it hit over 40,000 views on my Instagram. And I was like OK this is great. I continued interviewing more people like Comedian Carlos Mencia, Geno Segers the actor, Justin Guarini from American Idol, Johnny Kats from the Las Vegas review journals Entertainment column, Lorena Peril headliner at the Luxor., Clint Holmes… And it’s continuing. I just finished my yearly daily streaming campaign 30 days of April and this year we hit 1 million views. 500k more thank last year.

And while I was doing the interviews,
I kept getting requests for performances in Vegas and of course, I wanted to be performing so I started a residency at a small club in Vegas and invited a couple of my friends from LA to come perform with me. Ricky Rebel & Robert Rene. They both agreed and made the trek out to Vegas for a few months and now we’re getting requests for other Venues to perform. My show is growing out in Vegas and there is more coming.

I don’t know exactly how things will play Out, except I guess I do. I see it in my mind and I walk it all the way to the door of opportunity. And I don’t ask for permission I just walk in. I think what I’ve learned on my journey is this, if my mind can see it and my heart believes it then that’s what Im going to do.
And I’m taking my friends / follower family with me.

April Diamond. Next up, the April Diamond Album. Tour and Las Vegas Residency.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I struggled with self-doubt, with doing things when I didn’t have a lot of support meaning people didn’t understand what I was doing just my music team. The hours the late nights… All of these things weighed on me. And being an independent artist meant I had to find the funding. And somehow I did.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am known for LIVE with April
Diamond. An Instagram live show I created a few years ago that is now become a real interview in person talkshow..
I’m known for my billboard hit lose control in my two national radio hits. I got the music in me and feels so good. I’m known for being a vocal coach as well as a singer and my newly created Las Vegas residency. I have to say I’m blessed.

Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
I think finding a mentor is a great idea, and I think at some point you might need multiple mentors for different things. And you also have to rely on your own self.. trust yourself and make decisions you know are the ones to make. And for me, I relied truly on prayer in God. I needed a direction and next steps.. there are times when you feel like many things are working against you. And you have to shed that every single day and keep pushing.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://AprilDiamond.com
• Instagram: AprilDiamondMusic
• Facebook: AprilDiamondMusic
• Twitter: ImAprilDiamond
• Youtube: AprilDiamondOfficial

Image Credits
Headshots by Gerry Garcia Photo