Chanté Moore has been an R&B mainstay since the mid-1990s, but the Grammy-nominated songstress took her name and fame to a completely different audience this year when she joined the cast of TV One’s hit series “R&B Divas.” Having wrapped the season and released her latest album, Moore Is More, Chanté Moore spoke to rolling out about the experience and whether or not she has any regrets.
“I never ever ever thought I would do reality TV. It was not something I wanted to do,” she shares. “People asked me and my ex-husband [fellow singer Kenny Lattimore] to do it and we would’ve divorced five years earlier had we done that!”
“I liked ‘R&B Divas’ because it literally was about music. For me, it was about … our journey, resurfacing and exposing people to the album i was making at the moment,” she adds. “[But] people want to see who you are and not just hear you sing. that was another thing that i learned to appreciate about it.”
Fellow “R&B Divas” star Kelly Price has been the brunt of much criticism from fans and bloggers since her appearance on the show, and Price has stated that she felt that the cameras didn’t accurately depict her personality. But according to Moore, the cameras showed all of the cast in their true light.
“I have to say that what you saw is what happened to us,” Moore says. “There wasn’t a lot of manipulative editing. I know there’s another cast member on our show who is saying she looks bad because of editing or because of what the producers asked her to say or do. But I don’t believe that’s true. I was there. No, we didn’t get to see the footage before it was out, but what happened while I was there — I [saw] what happened.
“You can only show and hear what comes out of your mouth,” she adds. “You’re responsible for what comes out of your mouth. If you don’t say it, they can’t print it. It can’t be on camera if you didn’t do it — unless it is ‘scripted’ reality, and ours was not. If someone’s going to say that we were manipulated — then, after the show is over, you should’ve been a nice person. But people were who they were — on and off camera.”
Her advice for any star thinking of putting it all out there and joining a reality TV series? Just be an adult and own up to who you are and what you do.
“I really think that part of it is just taking responsibility for your actions,” she shares. “A lot of times, people [do] things and they’re sorry and they try to find an out.”
