Born in a small village in Alabama, Naomi Shelton was naturally and culturally immersed in a bath of gospel and soul music, participating as a child in her parish choir, forming a trio with her two older sisters at the age of 6 that performed in the churches of the surrounding villages, and becoming passionate at 18 about Wilson Pickett and Otis Redding. When she moved to New York, she became known under her secular name, Noami Davis, while on Sundays she became Noami Shelton, her sacred name, to sing at the Greater Crossroad Baptist Church in Brooklyn. Since the 2000s, she has collaborated with the Gospel Queens, bringing them her experience in group singing. The emotional impact of her voice is as much due to its power as to its hoarse, raspy tone. That of a singer becoming in her turn a pastor