Rachael Lampa

Type: Pop

Album: Live for You (2000)

Other Projects: Live for You, Folio (2000)

At 16, most teenagers are focusing on their next set of exams, sports, friends and trips to the mall. For Rachael Lampa, those things are important, but she is juggling them with a burgeoning singing career that has already won her a contract with Word Records, critical acclaim and a buzz in the music industry as one of pop’s spectacular and most promising new voices.

CCM Magazine's CD Review on "Live For You":

Years of hearing label publicists' overheated descriptions of artists and albums make one a little numb to hype. A quick run through Rachael Lampa's debut proves, however, that placing her voice in Celine Dion and Mariah Carey company is fully justified. Lampa's voice also recalls Jaci Velasquez, except with a broader range which she scales like a mountain goat. In a good way.

Veterans Brent Bourgeois and Brown Bannister produced, with Chris Eaton, Cindy Morgan and Bourgeois (assisted by Ginny Owens and Chris Rodriguez) were tapped to write the bulk of the album. The Middle Eastern-flavored "Day of Freedom" and the breakout first single, the Spanish guitar-laced title cut, begin the festivities, both giving Lampa ample opportunity to sang. Several ballads, equally suited to her voice, include the black gospel "Blessed" and "Always Be My Home," which Bourgeois infuses with the same sonic grandness he created on the Streams project.

The up-tempo tracks, clearly courting a younger audience, aren't so well-executed: "God Loves You" is just plain formulaic with an artless chorus ("God loves you/You know it, you know it, you know it/God loves you/Forever, forever and ever"), and "Lift Me Up" is a little too perky for its own good. But, given the quality of the rest of the album, they're forgivable.

The closing "My Father's Heart" borrows a lovely melody from English hymn "My Song Is Love Unknown," providing a last opportunity for Lampa to impress. With a fine set list and neck-hair-raising vocals (that, notably, stop short of show-boating or histrionics--you listening, Ms. Carey?), Lampa's debut is perhaps the best alternative Christian music has produced to general market divas. Did I mention she's only 15? --Beau Black

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Discovering her in 1999 at "Praise in the Rockies" in Estes Park, Colo., Word Records’ Brent Bourgeois was so impressed he rolled out the red carpet, offering the then 14-year-old girl a substantial and long-term recording deal. And when it came to recording her debut album, Live for You, some of Christian music’s finest songwriters—Chris Eaton, Chris Rodriguez, Michelle Tumes, Cindy Morgan and Nicole C. Mullen, among others—gathered together in a Franklin, Tenn., house to write songs specifically for Rachael. A full-throttle promotional effort was given to the project, garnering immediate nationally televised appearances on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" and "The View With Barbara Walters" and coverage from "Entertainment Tonight" and CNN’s "Showbiz Daily."

From a cell phone while en route to yet another music festival, a sleep-deprived Lampa is serious, but almost giggly with excitement.

"I never knew there was so much work," the Louisville, Colo., resident says with a laugh. "I always figured you make a record, you’re on TV, you do concerts, you’re a star. But now I see how much goes into it. The promotion, the travel, the interviews and everything—it’s hard work, but I’ve waited for this for, like, my whole life, so I’m just so excited and grateful for the whole experience, even the hard stuff."

One of the amazing things about Rachael, says Bourgeois, is that "she doesn’t seem to be intimidated by anything. She shows all the signs of being well-grounded and well-adjusted—thank God!—and continues to have a humble heart and a remarkably sane mind while her world is exploding around her."

Explosion or not, with the exception of her voice (which calls to mind such comparisons as Mariah Carey and Jaci Velasquez), Lampa is about as down-to-earth as a 15-year-old girl can be. She sports bright fingernail polish, a different color on each finger, and loves jet skiing and movie-going with her friends. (Her favorite all time movie? Dumb and Dumber.) She is always laughing, sometimes even when she probably shouldn’t. She’s still afraid of the dark, but she’s stopped biting her nails. She talks a lot about boys, getting her driver’s permit and shopping for clothes, and she gets totally annoyed by people who don’t seem to have any opinions of their own. Most importantly, she is surrounded by a "very happy and very close" family who make sure she has a reality-based, well-rounded life.

Being 15, Lampa says, is "…awesome because you can get away with being immature. People don’t really expect you to be mature. They expect you to be goofy, and most of us live up to people’s expectations."

But expectations for Miss Lampa are far greater than even she might imagine. Though her age and the timing of her debut land her well within the teen pop category, many of the professionals involved in her career anticipate this young woman’s talent will carry her far beyond the limits of any one musical category. It is her voice—first heard singing from her baby crib—her producers say, that is the rarest of gifts.

Acclaimed producer Brown Bannister, who helped shape the early career of Amy Grant, remembers the first time he heard Lampa sing. "She sang ‘Adonai’ to a track in the studio, and the hair was standing up on my neck, arms... She is one of the most naturally gifted singers I’ve ever worked with."

"What sets Rachael apart from other young singers of today," Bourgeois says, "is her seemingly ageless command of her voice. It’s not just her range, which alone is peerless, but... the way she absolutely inhabits the song she is singing. It not only sets her apart from her age-group, but it puts her in a very small league world-wide."