Lauren Daigle reveals how she handles criticism that comes with fame
BATON ROUGE, La. — In an interview with The Christian Post, two-time Grammy Award-winning singer Lauren Daigle shares how she deals with the criticism that comes with fame and reveals whether she will continue to make Christian music.
A week after Daigle made Billboard history earlier this month, she returned to Louisiana for a homecoming concert at the Raising Cane’s River Center for her Look Up Child Tour.
Speaking with CP before the concert, Daigle said she was most moved by how her music has impacted people from all over the world.
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"Winning Grammy’s is so special, but it's really the stories, it's getting to be with people, it's getting to see people's faces, hear how the music has changed their lives,” the Lafayette native said. “I can't believe I was in Africa at the airport and they're like, ‘Oh my gosh, you've got to see this, your record is in the music store in Africa.’ I was like, ‘What in the world?’”
Daigle has been making her mainstream TV rounds with appearances on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," “Dancing With The Stars,” and had to address critics who slammed her for appearing on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" because DeGeneres is a lesbian.
"Pressure is a real thing and I think there's times where you have to acknowledge it and then times where you just have to tell it to be quiet. 'Just be quiet. You can't control me,'” Daigle told CP, describing what it's been like for her to navigate past the criticism that have come her way.
“I think that a lot in life. Like with social media, there can be moments of positivity and joy, and there can be moments of criticism and pain. And that can get really difficult, but as long as you focus more on the positive ...”
"I'm that person that can have a million people say, 'I love you,' and then that one person say, 'but I don't.' And I'm like, 'Wait, why? What did I do?' I think that is perpetuated by social media,” Daigle insisted.
The songstress said that during those moments of insecurity she takes time to quiet herself and the world around her.
“If you just have moments of getting away, stepping back for a second, being still, and it's those moments, honestly, that I find myself collecting myself. And then I can go back into the war zone of negative things that are told about me,” she said.
“I'm girded up with a strength that it supersedes all of the unkind words,” Daigle testified. "'Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.’ It ain't true!! Words have power. There's power of life and death in the tongue. So I think we need to celebrate the words that bring life more than the ones that don't. Stop spreading mean messages!,” she exclaimed.
In March, Daigle revealed to fans during a Q&A that she struggles with anxiety “a lot.”
Because many people struggle with anxiousness, depression, and stress, the singer told CP she wants her record-breaking single “You Say” to help others appreciate who they are.
"I want people to know when they look at themselves in the mirror that they don't have to live in an age of comparison. They get to see themselves for who they actually are. And I think the more we, as a people, can celebrate the beauty in other people, the kindness of other people, the more those things become celebrated, the more we'll see people change, we'll see the generation change for the good,” Daigle declared.
“That's what I long for, I long for people to find their identity, and find out who they are and then have people around them to champion them,” she said. "I can't do this on my own. I know that full well. And so it's the kindness and the compassion of other people that keeps me going on.”
During her interview with CP, the 28 year old also responded to fans' concerns that her secular success will eventually lead her away from Christian music.
"I'm not leaving anybody. Someone asked me, they said, 'Hey, now that you're mainstream, are you going to change your content?' I said, 'If I changed the content that would change who I was in order to meet a format, and the format (audience) that is actually receiving this. Why would I change? It would make me inauthentic,'” she explained.
"There's nothing in me that's going to change. It's loving where I came from and loving where I'm going. That's how it is,” Daigle said.
Daigle will headline her first world tour, “Lauren Daigle World Tour,” in 2020.
She will travel to 44 cities, starting with Melbourne, Australia, on Jan. 18, 2020. She will then head to the U.S. in February, with stops in New York City, Nashville, Houston, Boston, and Dallas, as well as the Canadian cities of Toronto and Montreal.
The world tour is scheduled to conclude in her hometown of Lafayette.
Tickets for “Lauren Daigle World Tour” are available at www.laurendaigle.com/tour.
