In 2015, Lauren Daigle won the Best New Artist award from the Gospel Music Association (GMA), the organization that represents Christian music and that has their own version of the Grammys called the Dove Awards.
It’s rare, and it’s a struggle, for faith-based artists to break through to mainstream, secular, pop charts, but Daigle, whose voice is being compared to Adele’s, is doing it.
Her song “You Say” has caught fire on the Adult Top 40 chart, currently ranking #15 (She performed it recently on Dancing With The Stars season finale.)
When Boomers hear Daigle’s heartfelt emotional vocals that reveal her vulnerabilities and express her observations, both wise and wry, we think : 1971, Carly Simon, “That’s the Way I Always Thought It Would Be.”
I keep fighting voices in my mind that say I’m not enough
Every single lie that tells me I will never measure up
Am I more than just the sum of every high and every low?
Remind me once again just who I am, because I need to know (ooh oh)
Is this a “Christian” song? Not overtly. It could be, or it could not, each listener can interpret it his/her own way. More important is the power and intensity of Daigle’s voice.
Lauren Daigle is 27 years old. She grew up in Louisiana, surrounded by Cajun music, which, she says “touched her soul.”
Her first album (2015) went Platinum, and she’s won numerous Dove Awards: Song of the Year, Songwriter of the Year, Best Contemporary Recorded Song plus 2016 and 2017 Grammy nominations for best Contemporary Christian Music Album and single.