Sanford singer Diamond King performs at McDonald’s Gospelfest in New York

Sanford singer Cindy I. Philemon, known on stage as Diamond King, took her hometown to one of gospel music’s biggest showcases when she performed at McDonald’s Gospelfest in New York City. The 43rd annual event returned over Mother’s Day weekend at Palladium Times Square, placing a Sanford voice in a lineup that included The Clark Sisters, Jennifer Holliday and Le’Andria Johnson.

Gospelfest 2026 ran May 9 and May 10 with three performances, including shows Saturday at 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. and a Sunday performance at 6 p.m. A. Curtis Farrow produced and directed the event, which paired a talent competition with a gospel concert and has grown into a long-running national showcase for church-rooted performance.

For King, the New York stage was the latest step in a singing life that began at age 5, first alongside her father. She later sang in children’s choir, school productions and community theater, building a path that took her from Sanford to Connecticut and back again before she returned to Sanford at 17 and kept performing in the Seminole High School choir.

That local foundation was reinforced by Creative Sanford Inc., the nonprofit created to manage Celery Soup: Florida’s Folk Life Play. Its first production, Touch and Go, centered on Sanford residents and their determination to overcome setbacks, a connection that gave King another stage grounded in the city’s own story of persistence. Sanford, once one of the largest vegetable shipping centers in the United States and known as Celery City, built its identity around agriculture long before Naval Air Station Sanford changed the city’s rhythm from 1942 to 1968.

Seminole County’s official history adds another layer to that backdrop. The county was established on April 25, 1913, with Sanford as the county seat, and the Museum of Seminole County History describes the area as the historical gateway to interior Central Florida, shaped by community-donated artifacts and local stories. King’s appearance in New York tied that heritage to a national gospel platform, showing how a Sanford arts network can send a local performer onto a far larger stage without losing the roots that formed her.