By Brian Mansfield, Special for USA TODAY
'This Is the Stuff' about Francesca:� Battistelli may not be a familiar name outside Christian-music circles, but within that market the 25-year-old pop singer is the best-selling new act to come along in the past eight years. On the strength of hits like Free to Be Me and Beautiful, Beautiful, the New York-born, Florida-raised Battistelli was named the Gospel Music Association's Female Artist of the Year at the 2010 Dove Awards. She's up for four 2011 Doves at next month's ceremony in Atlanta, where she now lives. Hundred More Years, which features her current single This Is the Stuff, debuted at No. 16 on the Billboard album chart this week.
By Kristin Barlowe
"Now that I'm a mom, maybe they feel like I'm one of them, I've joined their ranks, and the songs I'm writing encourage them," Battistelli says.
By Kristin Barlowe
"Now that I'm a mom, maybe they feel like I'm one of them, I've joined their ranks, and the songs I'm writing encourage them," Battistelli says.
Born for the stage:�Battistelli initially set out on a musical-theater path. Her parents met during a national touring production of The King and I, in which her mother, Kate Hunter Brown, starred opposite Yul Brynner. After seeing the Broadway production of The Secret Garden at age 6, Battistelli decided to follow in her mom's footsteps. "I got to do a lot of professional theater in middle school and high school and kind of dragged my mom back into that world for a while," she says.
Group mentality:�Battistelli performed at the White House as part of a youth theater troupe that also featured Mandy Moore and joined a girl group with pop aspirations before finding her songwriting voice with her church youth group. "Being around those kids, songs that I was writing started changing," she says. "I wanted to write songs that were going to encourage those kids, things they would want to listen to." She moved to Nashville after graduating from the University of Central Florida with an English degree and signed with Christian label Fervent Records.
As heard on TV:�The songs from Battistelli's 2008 album My Paper Heart became very popular with films and TV shows. One ballad, It's Your Life, was used during the season finales of three reality-TV shows during 2009: NBC's The Biggest Loser, Fox's So You Think You Can Danceand TLC's Jon and Kate Plus 8. "My producer and I were trying to write, like, a girl-power anthem," she says. "I was laughing that I had written this reality theme song and didn't know it."
Single girl, married girl:�Between My Paper Heart, which has sold more than 400,000 units, and Hundred More Years, Battistelli married and had her first child. "Last record, I was a single girl in Nashville, didn't know anybody, was feeling very alone in the world," she says. "Now, my life looks completely different." She finds her core audience to consist of young girls ? and their mothers. "Now that I'm a mom, maybe they feel like I'm one of them, I've joined their ranks, and the songs I'm writing encourage them," she says.
Life's little ups and downs:�"I lost my keys in the great unknown/And call me, please, 'cause I can't find my phone," Battistelli sings against a ukulele backdrop on This Is the Stuff, currently No. 7 on USA TODAY's Christian AC radio chart. "I was pregnant, and I wasn't feeling well," she says of the writing session with producer Ian Eskelin and Tony Wood. "I wasn't sure how long I was going to last. They had this idea: 'What if we wrote a song about all the annoying things that happen in life, but bring it back around to something good?'"
Family affair:�Through April 3, Battistelli will be touring as part of Winter Jam, an annual Christian multi-artist tour that also features Newsboys, the David Crowder Band, Kutless, Red and Newsong. Newsong founding member Billy Goodwin is her father-in-law, and Battistelli's husband, Matt Goodwin, plays percussion for that group. "My husband and my little boy are out on tour with his grandpa," she says, "so he gets to see him every day."
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