Stacie Orrico's Beautiful Awakening

Stacie Orrico's elegant latest album, the soulful, R&B-powered Beautiful Awakening, tells the story of that journey, which has landed her where she is today in control of her life and career for the first time. "It's definitely a peaceful record," says Orrico, now 20. "I wanted to make an album that you would want to put on while you're sitting in your bedroom after a long day. I wanted it to have songs that I could sing accompanied by just an acoustic guitar." The result, a stripped-down affair that sets raw beats, guitar, piano, and a few strings against Orrico's jazz-inflected powerhouse vocals, is the work of an artist coming into her own. Orrico says the topics, which range from break-up songs ("I'm Not Missing You," "Don't Ask Me to Stay") to romantic ballads ("Easy to Love You," "Wait") to a shout-out to single moms ("Baby Girl") to a celebration of family ("So Simple"), "reflect a time that is really joyful and where love has been part of my life. Whereas in the past my music arose from a place that was a lot rougher emotionally."

To understand where Orrico is coming from on Beautiful Awakening, it helps to go back to before stardom changed her life. Born in Seattle in 1986, Orrico grew up the daughter of Christian missionaries, the middle child of five in a close-knit Italian-American family. When Orrico was seven, her parents' travels took them to the Ukraine where young Stacie helped tend to tuberculosis-stricken orphans at a local hospital. The Orricos lived in a compound that had no hot water. The experience, she says, "taught me that no matter what a person's background is, no matter what language they speak, there are common bonds between people, certain things we can all relate to."

Stacie Orrico, with its urban-flavored R&B-pop sound, spawned two Top Ten singles, "(There's Gotta Be) More To Life" and "Stuck," the 17-year-old found herself caught up in a whirlwind of promotional appearances, including performing on MTV's TRL, announcing the Grammy nominations (for which she earned one for "Best Pop Contemporary Gospel Album"); and walking the red carpet the MTV Video Music Awards.

Then the album exploded in Asia, and Orrico hit the road, traveling to anew country every three days and doing interviews from seven in the morning to 11 at night. At this point, she had never attended a day of high school, never went to prom, and missed all of her family's vacations, a particularly sad state of affairs for such a family-oriented person. "Now my whole identity is completely wrapped up in the music industry. I had no life outside of it-no foundation beneath it to support me. It was time to decide whether a music career was really what I wanted to do."

Orrico's renewed passion for music-everything from singing to writing to vocal arranging-bleeds through the tracks on Beautiful Awakening. Orrico co-wrote a majority of the album and worked with a variety of top-notch producers, including Dallas Austin, Dwayne Bastiany, Kaygee and co-writers such as Shekspear, Track & Field, Anthony Dent, and newcomer Novel, a rapper, singer, producer and songwriter whom Orrico met at a studio in Atlanta when she heard him making beats down the hall. "He's my musical soulmate," Orrico says of Novel, who is the grandson of soul legend Solomon Burke and has written songs for Kellis and India Arie. "We just hear music the same way and are inspired by so many of the same things."

"That's not what I'm about," she says. "You're not going to see me jumping around onstage to pre-recorded tracks. Really I feel like I'm launching a new career. I want to perform soul music. That is what rings true to me. And truth, honesty, and vulnerability always rise to the top."

Stacie Orrico's new album called Beautiful Awakening is now available at your favorite music stores released by EMI Philippines.