Music Videos|May 30, 2014 12:03 EDT
4 Female Artists Who Began Their Careers as Christian Singers – Katy Perry, Jessica Simpson, Amy Lee, and Joy Williams (VIDEOS)
There are a handful of females artists who are extremely popular today that started their career in the church or with Christian roots. BreatheCast is taking a look at four of the biggest: Katy Perry, Jessica Simpson, Evanescence's Amy Lee, and The Civil Wars' Joy Williams.
KATY PERRY
Perhaps the most successful artist on the list is Katy Perry. As the daughter of two ministers it was only natural for Perry to grow up using her talents in the church. In 2001 she released a CCM album under her birth name, Katy Hudson. The self-titled album was a mixture of pop and rock, and received mostly positive reviews. She went on tour and even appeared on TBN because of it. However, her label soon went bankrupt which was undoubtedly due to the flop of her album selling an estimated 200 copies.
See that TBN performance below:
Of course everyone knows who Katy Hudson became, and now as Katy Perry, she has gone on to sell millions of records and become one of the most recognizable faces in pop music.
JESSICA SIMPSON
Over the last few years Jessica Simpson has focused mostly on being a mother and a wife, but prior to that she was a huge pop artist and occasional actor. Like Perry, her father was also a minister, and she grew up singing in a baptist church. Around 1994 she was discovered by a small Christian label and released an album called, Jessica. Also mirroring Perry's story, the label dropped her, and the album was not released until later when Simpson's own family funded it. It was then that she was discovered by Columbia Records and signed.
Hear a track off of Jessica's only Christian music album below:
Simpson would go on to release three huge pop albums in the early 2000s and even get her own reality show with then husband, Nick Lachey. She has not released an album since 2010, but it seems more than likely one will be coming soon.
EVANESCENCE (Amy Lee)
Heading into rock music, Evanescence was labeled a Christian band and marketed heavily in that market. Their label Wind-Up Records had a number of Christian bands or Christian sounding bands signed to them at the time so Evanescence may have been grouped in by association. However, the founding members Amy Lee and Ben Moody met at a Christian youth camp, and some of their music on debut album Fallen contained Christian themes. In later interviews, Lee admitted most of the songs were related to relationships. The one song that referenced God and Jesus was called, "Tourniquet," which was originally a song written for Christian metal band Soul Embraced. The band member Rocky Gray was also in that band, and carried the song over.
Watch a video of "Tourniquet" below:
The band would later become a revolving door of members and would only put out two albums over the next 10 year's since their debut. They have completely abandoned any Christian affiliation with their music and even their own identities. In an interview from early on in her career Lee had said she was a Christian but did not want to alienate people in their music. Just a few years later on z100, she equated Moody and herself to "Satan and the Anti-Christ."
THE CIVIL WARS (Joy Williams)
Before Joy Williams was winning Grammy Awards as one half of the Civil Wars, she was a CCM artist who recorded three albums. From 2001-2005 she was signed to a Christian label as a young 17-year-old pop artist. The albums were moderately successful, and her song "Hide" won an ASCAP Award in 2005 for "Most Performed Song." She was later dropped from her label and went the secular route with music.
Hear her song "Hide" below:
Williams is currently making music with her band partner John Paul White. The duo play indie folk music and have garnered huge success. They have appeared and won on multiple award's shows and are currently on a small break. They have two albums and four EPs.
Are there any female artists we have missed? Let us know in the comments, and be sure to chime in on your opinion of their music in the past and present.
