Singer Rachel Lampa rose to stardom in the early 2000s, releasing numerous hit songs and albums, but at 20 years old, she decided to leave it all behind. After years of staying out of the spotlight and, at moments, taking on more minor roles as a background singer, Lampa now finds herself making music again.
She even landed a K-LOVE Fan Award earlier this year for her single “Perfectly Loved,” something she said was unexpected. She recently told CBN Digital of her win, “If there’s a definition of ‘caught off guard,’ that was it.” It’s a return Lampa never really thought would happen and one she didn’t intentionally orchestrate. The singer reflected on the beginning of her career at age 14, when she found herself on the road and in the studio, growing up in the public eye.
The process of being a well-known Christian singer while navigating being a teen wasn’t always easy. Lampa said, “I was trying to make sense of growing up, getting to know who I am, but also like jumping on interviews and trying to pretend I know who I am.” Now at 38, Lampa said she’s had a challenging experience this time around, describing the entire process of being “sweet, redeeming, and refreshing.”
She said, “I just am able to show up in an honest way and in a way where I don’t have to put anything on. I don’t have to feel like I have to strive for like everyone’s acceptance and everyone’s love. And there’s much more peace.” Many people want to know why Lampa chose to walk away from a busy and successful music contract years ago. Those questions aren’t new, though; she said it’s something people openly questioned at the time, asking her if she was sure about her decision.
Lampa said, “I was 20, 21ish, and it was the time when a lot of my friends from high school were just stepping into what they wanted to do for the rest of their lives,” Lampa said. “And, for me, I was stepping out of what I thought I would be doing for the rest of my life.” At the time, she had no definitive plan of what came next, though she said she knew it wasn’t a hiatus or a sabbatical; it was something much deeper.
Lampa said, expressing her confusion at the time, “It was just a straight-up, like, ‘I don’t have peace right now. I feel very anxious. I feel lots of pressure. I don’t know what my voice is, what their voices are, what God’s voice is. I can’t tell any of it apart.’ So, when I stopped, I literally was like, ‘I don’t know what’s next.'” She said that her love for music and its role in her connection to faith was restored during her decade-long break. She added, “[I realized] I can just sing and just enjoy music, just to spend time with God and not have this big pressure to go change the world with it, honestly.”
One of the other efforts Lampa has engaged in over recent years is her family’s ministry, People Loving Nashville, an effort to feed people without housing and minister to the incarcerated. As it turns out, the experience is why she wrote “Perfectly Loved,” a song that has deeply resonated and led to her K-LOVE Award Win. “I was not planning on doing music ever again,” Lampa said.
However, God had other plans. The roots of her return to music set while she was telling friends in her small group how powerful it was seeing incarcerated women hear about God’s love and instantaneously be moved by the message. They encouraged her to take her experience and create music around it.