Christian music star Lauren Daigle is returning to the music scene with an undeniable enthusiasm for her current self-titled album and for being able to tour. But more than that, she’s diving back into music with a whole new perspective on her life and the place her career occupies within it.
The tour, with a West Coast stop at Stanford’s Frost Amphitheater this week, will take the Louisiana native through the Southern Hemisphere, ending in Perth, Australia.
“I’ve got probably the healthiest relationship with my career I’ve ever had, because it’s in balance,” Daigle said in a phone interview. “When I leave to go out and see the world, I get to leave with so much joy and so much passion because I know I’m going to get to come home and love on my family and it’s just a really, it feels very much in balance, but not just in balance as far as time is concerned, it feels very much in balance as far as passion is concerned and as far as joy is concerned.”
Getting to such a healthy place has not been easy for Daigle. She is coming out of a period where she struggled with anxiety and depression and faced serious uncertainty about how to go about a career that became all consuming.
“I got to a place of rock bottom as I’d known it up until this point, lots of sheer depression, anxiety,” she said.
Shaken by seeing the pandemic put her career on hold, and also upset over the political and social divisions that were emerging in society as a whole, the upheaval came to a head when Daigle suffered a severe panic attack. At first, she was scared it was a health emergency, such as a heart attack, but a phone call to a doctor helped her understand what she was experiencing and how to breathe as she battled her anxiety.
What also helped Daigle was she had her mother, a best friend and her faith by her side, helping her as she rode out her fear and panic.
“My mom and my friend just sat with me throughout the whole thing. It lasted about seven hours, and was pretty intense,” Daigle said of her panic attack. “They just encouraged me that everything was OK. So I say that to say that even in the height of paranoia, even in the height of panic, God was still close and He showed me who He was through these people who just sat with me to support me and not judge for what was completely unraveling at the surface.”
It was a long road to recovery after that episode. Daigle’s family continued to provide support, as she entered into counseling to try to regain her emotional footing. Daigle said it took her two and a half years to really feel like herself again.
Daigle was still far from feeling normal when the time came for her to begin work on her next album.
“My manager flew to my home and she was basically like, ‘OK, here’s the deal. What’s the verdict? Are you done with music for good? Or are you going to step back into this?’ Daigle recalled.
Daigle decided to move forward with music. But she didn’t know what kind of album she wanted to make.
Daigle credits her co-writers—which included new collaborators Amy Wadge, Lori McKenna, Jon Greene, Mike Elizondo (who also produced the album) and perhaps most notably, Natalie Hemby (who has co-writing credits on 10 songs on the full Lauren Daigle album)—with essentially pulling ideas out of her that turned into songs.
And a lot of songs came out. The first phase of the project arrived in May 2023 as a 10-song self-titled album, which last September was expanded with another 13 songs from the same writing and recording sessions to form a 23-song double album.
The writing and recording sessions were obviously productive, but what’s even more impressive is the Lauren Daigle album represents her most ambitious, stylistically varied and accomplished work to date—touching not only on the highly melodic balladry that has been Daigle’s signature sound, but sprightly songs that bring out her New Orleans roots, classic soul, ’60s-era pop and even a touch of hip-hop.
That’s no small accomplishment for an artist who had already reached rarefied air with her first two albums, which together produced three No. 1 Christian singles (including the Grammy winning, six-times-platinum song “You Say” from her third album, Look Up Child) that propelled her into the front ranks of the Christian music scene. The Lauren Daigle album has so far added a fifth No. 1 Christian single to her catalog in “Thank God I Do.”
Daigle, who recently released an EP, Sessions, that features eight songs performed live on SiriusXM and Apple Music, is back on tour now. She is bringing a big production featuring a mix of songs from across her career.
“We are still bringing all the energy, all the fun. I think there is going to be 13 of us on stage, 13 or 14 of us, which I’m really excited about. We have our horn section, which I love because it brings that energy and the zeal and the iconic sounds of New Orleans,” Daigle said. “We’ve got a background vocalist section, drums, bass, guitar, all the things. It’s going to be really sweet.”
Lauren Daigle and Blessed Offor perform at 7pm on Aug 29 at Frost Amphitheater, Stanford University. Tickets availabel through AXS.com.
