Rachael Lampa

Early life

Lampa was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan and raised in Louisville, Colorado, a small city outside Boulder. Her father is Filipino and her mother is of Hungarian and Irish descent. She is the second oldest of four children. Her older brother Ryan served as her road manager when she toured. Her younger siblings are sister, Colleen, and brother, Nate. Her parents both worked as nurses and later divorced during her late teens. Lampa began singing as a toddler and learned to sing perfect harmony by the time she was four years of age. During her childhood, she was actively involved in performing throughout Colorado, winning a statewide talent competition when she was 8 years old. She also sang several times at Colorado Rockies baseball games as a child. She was raised Catholic.

At age 12, she participated as a singing contestant on The Jenny Jones Show Young Talent Search and finished in second place at the World Championship of Entertainment. In August 1999, she performed live on EWTN's "Life on the Rock on the Road" in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Later, she was discovered at age 14 by Word Records producer, Brent Bourgeois, while attending (but not competing in) the Music in the Rockies, a Christian music conference in Colorado. She was asked to sing at a café at the conference when the original performer did not appear. After signing her first record label contract she visited Nashville to record her debut album.

Early career: 2000–2003

Lampa released her debut album Live for You in August 2000. The album became a huge hit spawning four number one singles and winning a Dove Award for the number one hit "Blessed". She received many comparisons to fellow teenage Christian pop artist Stacie Orrico, who debuted the same year. She made several appearances to promote the album including an appearance on The Tonight Show performing "Live For You". She has also toured with Stacie Orrico, as well as artists such as Nickel Creek and Amy Grant. She has also been a part of many tours such as the ShoutFest tour, as well as Summer Jam tours. Her song "If You Believe" was part of the soundtrack to A Walk to Remember, which was released in early 2002. In March 2002, she released her second album, Kaleidoscope. It also got positive reviews. Three of singles released made it to the top five on the charts. The first single, "No Greater Love", made it to number two on the CCM charts. "I'm All Yours" made it to the top five on the CCM Charts. The fourth single was "Brand New Life". In October 2002 she released a remix album Blur, featuring remixes of her hit songs, as well as personal favorites. In 2003, she toured on the Compassion International tour.

2004–2010: Other music projects

In July 2004, Lampa released her third studio album, Rachael Lampa produced by Tommy Sims. The album received praise among the critics for its diverse styles, which included contemporary, retro, acoustic, soul, R&B, and even ska. It was also the first time that Lampa had written or co-written on every track. She served as executive producer for the album. Guest artists on the album included Robert Randolph, and Christian rapper T-Bone. Three singles were released from the album. "When I Fall" was the album's first single, reaching number seven on the Christian music charts. The other two, "Outrageous" and "No Other One", both received poor airplay. For promotion, she toured with Newsong on the Summer Jam 2004, and Winter Jam 2005 tours. She also appeared on the Joy to the World Christmas tour, alongside Martha Munizzi, and Bryan Duncan in 2005. In 2005, she appeared alongside Fundador Morales, a singer from Boston, to sing "There Is Still a Dream" in New York for an after Christmas celebration, for The Today Show. In late 2005, she left her first label, Word Records.

In October 2005, she appeared on the album The Message, where she wrote and sang the song "Flag (Psalm 57 and 108)". In May 2006, Word Records released a greatest hits collection, titled, Blessed: The Best of Rachael Lampa. It features a seventeen-song collection of her best and favorite songs, from her four albums as well as a track that made it on various compilations, but is not featured on her actual albums. Lampa is still touring selected dates. In 2006 she appeared on the Newsong Christmas Hope tour, alongside Todd Agnew, and Nate Sallie. Lampa also appeared on the Falling Up remix album Exit Lights, where she sang on the track "Exhibition (Epoison)". On October 6, 2006, Hidden Secrets, a film touted as the Christian version of The Big Chill debuted with Lampa starring as "Sally". Her co-stars included John Schneider from the television series The Dukes of Hazzard. Lampa performed four songs for the film: "When I Fall", "The Good Life", "No Other One" and "The Art". On June 5, 2007, Lampa revealed in a blog that she was writing and recording new songs for a new album. She also revealed on her blog that she was looking for a new label. In early summer 2007, Lampa posted three new demo songs on her Myspace. Tracks included "Look Up", "Does It Have to Be Tonight", "Summertime" and "Lovin You". Lampa appeared in Christian rapper T-Bone's video for the song "Name Droppin" the first single of his album Bone-Appetit!. Lampa appeared and performed "When I Fall" and "Blessed" at the 2008 Republican National Convention in Saint Paul, Minnesota on September 2, 2008.

In December 2009, Lampa released a Christmas EP, Three Songs for Christmas, exclusively to her website. Lampa released her first extended play Human independently on January 5, 2010.

2011–present

In 2011, Lampa and Tyler Ward, produced a cover of "Rocketeer" by Far East Movement. She signed with Universal Music Christian Group and later released her fifth studio album, All We Need, on September 27, 2011. The lead single, "Remedy", was released on July 26, 2011.

Starting in August 2011, Lampa took part with vocal group "The Collective" during the third season of the NBC musical reality show The Sing-Off. The Collective made it up to week six of the show before being eliminated from the series finishing 8th overall between 16 finalist vocal groups. On January 15, 2013, Lampa was featured on a music video with recording artist Jonathan Thulin. The song "Bombs Away" was co-written and stars Lampa. The video received critical and fan praise for its unique approach to the gospel. In June 2014, she provided special guest vocals on "Infinite", a single by Kevin Max.

In 2015, she began working as a backing vocalist for Irish singer/musician, Hozier.

Personal life

Lampa graduated from Monarch High School in May 2003. While in high school she was a starting point guard for the girls basketball team. She married singer/songwriter Brendan McCarthy on March 27, 2010. Lampa and Christian singer, Stacie Orrico, are close friends. Lampa resides in Nashville. Lampa announced the birth of her son Jackson Augustine McCarthy who was born on September 18, 2016 on her instagram.

Discography