Lauren Ashley Daigle (born September 9, 1991) is an American contemporary Christian music singer-songwriter from Lafayette, Louisiana. Daigle is signed to the Centricity Music label. Her first full-length album, How Can It Be, was released in April 2015 and went on to achieve Gold Record status. Daigle was awarded the New Artist of the Year title at the 2015 GMA Dove Awards, with her single "How Can It Be" winning the Song of the Year. The next year, she went on to win Dove Awards for Artist of the Year, Songwriter of the Year, and Best Contemporary Recorded Song of the Year, with her single "Trust in You." Daigle's album How Can It Be was nominated for a 2016 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Christian Music Album; her single "Trust in You" was nominated for a 2017 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song.
Biography
Daigle grew up in Lafayette, Louisiana in an environment of zydeco, blues and Cajun music. From the youngest age Lauren had a chance to immerse herself in a passion for music. She said that her mother called her house "The music box" when she was a child because anytime she was awake she was singing. Faith and music have always been involved in the life of this Louisiana Native. Daigle admits she almost pushed music to the backburner, unsure if it was her true calling, until a devastating illness, infectious mononucleosis from cytomegalovirus, brought her young life into sharper focus. She claims that it was one of the best things that had happened to me. Because of her suffering with a major illness while in high school, she was kept out of school for nearly two years. When she went to college prep school, she felt as if it were time to get serious and thought she had to go into the medical field and do mission work. Then when the Lord brought her into that solitude, she realized that she needed to follow her true passion of music. Soon after, Daigle attended a charter school and completed a year and a half of class work in six months and actually graduated early. She took a year off from school, traveling to Brazil to do mission work, before attending Louisiana State University to pursue a degree in Child and Family Studies, but music was always on her agenda.
Early music career
Daigle started singing in her choir and continued to lead the choir while studying Child and Family Studies at Louisiana State University. She tried out for American Idol in 2010 and 2012 after she was encouraged by her family to compete in the singing competition. She was cut just before the final 24 contestants in 2010, did not make Hollywood in 2011, made it through the Hollywood round in 2012, but was cut in the first Las Vegas round in 2012.
Daigle was asked to sing background vocals on an EP for a local band called "The Assemblie" and the EP was briefly the most sold album in the US iTunes Store. After the release of the EP, Centricity Music invited her to attend a workshop. When the singer for the main event at the workshop became ill, she was asked to fill in. This led to her singing on the Jason Gray single "Nothing is Wasted". Centricity Music signed her on the label in 2013.
Her first single, "Light of the World" came from the 2013 album Christmas: Joy To The World, a collection of holiday songs from various Centricity artists. Serving as Daigle's solo introduction to the Christian music scene, the single garnered an initial fan-base and much attention for Daigle. She released the EP How Can It Be in September 2014. That year, Daigle was asked to be a part of the Morning Rises Fall Tour with Aaron Shust and Mikeschair.
How Can It Be
Daigle's debut full-length album, How Can It Be was released April 14, 2015, debuting at No. 1 both on the Billboard Christian Albums Chart. The album also broke Top 20 both on the Billboard Top Albums Chart for all genres (No. 16). Daigle was named one of Christian music's break-out artists, and her album's first single "How Can It Be" was named by iTunes as one of the Top Christian songs of 2014. The single "How Can It Be" also reached Top 10 at NCA, AC Monitored, and AC Indicator. As a whole, the album logged six weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Christian Albums Chart. Eighteen months after its release, How Can It Be achieved Gold Record status, a rare achievement for an artist's debut album.
The additional singles from How Can It Be also gained success for Daigle. "First" reached No. 1 on the Billboard Christian Airplay Chart, where it remained for seven weeks; "Trust in You" also reached the No. 1 spot, remaining for eight weeks. Both songs achieved the No. 1 spot on the NCA radio chart. "Come Alive (Dry Bones)" peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Christian Airplay chart.
On June 1, 2015, Daigle accepted her first award, Worship Song of the Year, for her single "How Can It Be" at the K-Love Awards. This was also the first K-Love Fan Award for her label, Centricity Music. The album How Can It Be won the 2016 Billboard Award for Top Christian Album and was nominated for the 2016 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Christian Music Album. Along with being named Best New Artist at the 2015 Dove Awards, Daigle earned awards for Song of the Year and Contemporary Song of the Year (for "How Can It Be). At the next year's ceremony, she took home the top honor of Artist of the Year, plus Songwriter of the Year, and Contemporary Recorded Song of the Year (for "Trust in You"). That year she also won two K-Love Fan Awards, for Artist of the Year and Female Artist of the Year. She received another Grammy nomination in 2017, for Best Contemporary Christian Song, (for "Trust in You"). Daigle won Female Artist of the Year at the K-Love Fan Awards in 2017 for the second year in a row.
The album's overall success resulted in the release of How Can It Be: Deluxe Edition in May 2016. The deluxe version features the original album's tracks, along with two new songs, acoustic versions of singles "First" and "Come Alive", and a live performance version of "How Can It Be".
Tour and other projects
In mid-2015, Daigle was a member of the Outcry Tour along with Hillsong United. She was also part of the Winter Jam Tour 2016 in the central and eastern parts of the United States.
In late 2016, Daigle headlined her first tour, A Night With Lauren Daigle, which sold out. She joined For King and Country on their holiday tour later in the year. She will be part of the Outcry Tour again in early 2017.
In October 2016, Daigle released her first Christmas album, Behold: A Christmas Collection, and reached No. 29 on the Billboard 200. In 2017, she was featured in the song "Hard Love" by Needtobreathe for The Shack. Daigle co-wrote and performed "Almost Human", the only original song, on the Blade Runner 2049 soundtrack. The album, produced by Michael Hodges, Kayla Morrison and Ashley Culp, reached No. 1 on the Billboard Soundtrack Sales Charts.
Discography
Studio albums
Be Joyus (2013)
How Can It Be (2015)
Behold: A Christmas Collection (2016)
Extended plays
How Can It Be (2014)
Awards
Billboard Music Awards
American Music Awards
GMA Dove Awards
Grammy Awards
References
External links
Official website
