Lauren Daigle

One Liner:  Contemporary Christian singer with a killer voice

Wikipedia Genre:  Contemporary Christian music, pop
Home: Lafayette, LA

Poster Position: 5

Both Weekends.

Thoughts: The fifth freaking line?  I mean, her voice is lovely and her one hit is pretty solid, but that seems like the sort of position on a poster where the person or band is an instant household name type person, you know, like Lil Uzi Vert or King Princess or Rosalia or RL Grime.  nevermind.  I'm an idiot.

But what really matters is that her first single sounds like some Adele-style belting power pop stuff that is absolutely powerful.  "You Say," with 131.4 million streams.

Right?  Even in the low notes at the first verse, that could be Adele, lying in wait, ready to spring like a tiger for the prey of your ears.  Then the orchestra swells, and her voice launches out of a cannon for the chorus, and unless you are the Grinch, your soul launches with it.  The video leaves something to be desired, just her hanging out in some AirBnb and staring at the camera about half the time.  She won two Grammys based on that one song, and it ended up crossing over to fire up to #29 on the regular Billboard chart.

It took me a little while to realize that I was listening to Christian music.  I was like "huh, she's talking about grace reaching out for me, that sure sounds like something from the contemporary service."  And then I looked it up, and yes, she is a Christian singer.  EVEN more wild that she is on the 5th line of a festival where everyone will be stoned and screaming out lyrics like ALL MY FRIENDS ARE DEAD by like 3 pm.

"Love Like This" is absolutely gorgeous.  "How Can It Be" is pretty awesome sounding as well.  While in general, I would say that sweeping contemporary Christian ain't my bag, but I can't deny that her voice is stunning and powerful.

Her Wikipedia says that she was kept out of school for nearly two years because of contracting mono (probably making out with all those sinner boys), crushed her studies at home, took a year to do mission work in Brazil, and then enrolled at LSU.  She later competed several times for American Idol, making it to the last 24 contestants in 2010.

Two real albums and then one Christmas compilation thing, and I'd say that the new album (2018's Look Up Child) is the stronger of the two.  Leans more on organic sounds and less on drum machine stuff.  I figured "How Can It Be" would be the hit from this one, but it is actually one called "Trust In You," with 48.4 million streams.

Live version, but you get the idea.  I can definitely see my church's contemporary band jamming these songs while I uncomfortably stand there and hope they sing something traditional.

I likely wouldn't go see this - just not my bag of music type - but her voice is killer and you likely won't be sorry to go hear a talent like this.