Lauren Daigle celebrates sharing more of herself with audiences before her Des Moines show

Christian pop artist Lauren Daigle’s new self-titled album was a vulnerable experience for the Grammy winner, in the best way imaginable.

“I felt like there was this freedom that really came out throughout the writing process,” Daigle told the Des Moines Register from Nashville in a phone call Monday.

She credited friend and songwriter Natalie Hemby for playing a role in that process.

“Did this record feel vulnerable? Did I feel vulnerable in sharing it?” Daigle said. “It wasn't the intimidated vulnerability, because there's that type of vulnerability. It was more like, ‘Oh, finally there's freedom. I can share with the world more pieces of who I am.’ There's a delight in that.”

Daigle will perform at Wells Fargo Arena Friday night with Christian worship leader and singer Brandon Lake. Before Friday’s show, Daigle spoke to the Register about which songs off her 23-track album fans are connecting with and handling critics' doubts in her faith.

Note: Answers are edited for clarity and length.

Des Moines Register: Congratulations on the release of now all 23 tracks on your new album. Which songs are fans saying they’re especially resonating with, finding strength or joy in, since the release?

Lauren Daigle: “Be Okay” is one that is really resonating. A lot of people have reached out about that song. From what I heard from the management side of things, they check the ratings of which songs are testing the best and things like that and “Be Okay” is one. And I'm so glad because that song, I was able to write that with the beautiful Ellie Holcomb. We were actually in Southern California, outside of Newport, when we wrote this song. On the way flying over, Ellie received an email from a little girl who was going through it. She was in her last years with a terminal illness and it had gotten to pretty much the end and she was asking Ellie all these questions about life and death and what does this look like. And if you've never been in that scenario, if you've never faced the process of dying, then it's really questions you can't answer. Ellie wrote the majority of it… she just said, “I just want to let this girl know that when it's all said and done, everything is going to be OK.” And that was the origin of how the song started. We were able to send it over to her. It's just been really beautiful to see how people have latched on to that song.

Des Moines Register: You’ve faced criticism regarding your faith. I read in the New York Times that you’ve seen people question if you are still a Christian. How do you manage that?

Lauren Daigle: It is tough. I'm not someone who is completely soulless. Whenever you find yourself facing criticism, especially for the thing that you love the most, it's really hard not to defend your reputation or defend who you are. It's also really hard not to take those things personally when it is an actual personal attack toward your character. I'm not one of these resilient, “Oh, I'll just do what I want, be who I want whenever I want.” For me, it is a very deliberate practice to say, “OK, at the end of the day, where does my identity lie? Who am I? Who do I know myself to be, outside of what the world wants to label me as, outside of what critics want to box me in as, who do I know myself to be?” And then I take it one step further. “OK, who do my friends and family in my immediate inner circle know me to be?” And then I take it a step further. “OK, who am I in my workplace to the people that I work with day in and day out?” And those people that have direct contact to me, direct connection to me, those are the ones that hold me accountable. And that also, not only hold me accountable, but can remind me of who I am when I feel weary about some of the criticism. That’s how I handle it, and that's what I do to stay on top of it.

Des Moines Register: Does fashion play any part in who you are and how you want to communicate yourself to people, or am I just reading too much into your fun, vibrant wardrobe?

Lauren Daigle: You hit the nail on the head… my mom used to say that she would have to come in my room and be like, “Lauren, this is the last outfit of the day, OK? No more changing clothes.” Because I was always changing clothes all throughout the day just to find a new way to express myself. She said as a mom, I was constantly washing clothes because of trying to maintain how many times I would change my clothes throughout the day, outfits and things like that. I remember whenever we were allowed to wear whatever we wanted to school, just sitting at my drawer as a child like six years old, just staring at the drawer like, “There's so many options, how am I going to put this together today?” Fast forward now, I love life. I love it so much. You can grasp joy in a way like never before I feel like because we've just seen what society had to go through with COVID and with pain and with loss and with difficulty. And when you know sorrow, it gives you this way to find joy in the simplest of places and for me, that is expressing myself creatively through clothing and through fashion. It doesn't necessarily have to be the most expensive item on the shelf and things like that. Half of our wardrobe we went and bought shirts and we painted for the Kaleidoscope Tour.

Paris Barraza covers entertainment, lifestyle and arts at the Des Moines Register. Reach her at PBarraza@registermedia.com or follow her on Twitter @ParisBarraza.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Lauren Daigle, 'You Say' Christian singer, comes to Wells Fargo Arena