After her first album she signed to a new record label, Virgin Records, and started to record her self-titled album Stacie Orrico (2003). The album, which debuted at No. 59 on the Billboard Hot 200, was certified gold with over 500,000 sales in the U.S. The first single "Stuck" reached number No. 52 on Billboard Hot 100, but worldwide a bigger success. Her second single "(There's Gotta Be) More to Life" debuted at No. 30 on the Billboard Hot 100. Her self-titled album has achieved sales worldwide of over 3.5 million. In the same year, she made her first television appearance as an actress in two episodes of American Dreams.
She lost her label ForeFront Records in 2005 after 7 years and decided to concentrate on her music career and began writing her third album, Beautiful Awakening (2006). The first single "I'm Not Missing You" was released in August 2006. The second single, "So Simple", is the last single from her third album which never charted in the U.S.
Early life
Orrico was born in Seattle, Washington to Italian-American parents. The family later moved to Denver, Colorado. Orrico is the middle child of five children; her siblings are Jesse, Rachel, Alicia, and Joshua. Both parents, Dean and Patti, loved to travel, requiring the family to move frequently. She grew up influenced by a wide-range of musical styles and was a member in the church choir; she oftentimes accompanied on the piano as the family sung Christian Hymns. At the age of 6 Stacie wrote her first song entitled 'Always Answer'.
Music career
1998–2001: Beginning with pop careerOrrico got her start in 1998 at the age of 12 by attending a Christian music festival, Praise in the Rockies, held in her then-home state ofColorado. Orrico inadvertently entered a high-stakes talent competition, and won. A ForeFront Records executive was on hand and approached her for a record deal. She later signed with them. In 2001, she toured with Destiny's Child on their Survivor U.S. tour.
Since then, she has released two albums. The first was Genuine (2000), created at the young age of fourteen. It sold over 13,000 copies in the first week, the highest debut week sales ever for a female Christian artist. The album produced the hit single "Don't Look At Me" which topped Christian charts for ten consecutive weeks. The album had two #1 hits, as well as three more Top Ten singles. Genuine eventually sold 500,000 copies, giving the album Gold certification on word-of-mouth alone.
In 2001, still only 15, she released her only Christmas album, "Christmas Wish." The six tracks included Love Came Down, Christmas Wish, O Holy Night, What Child Is This, O Come All Ye Faithful, and White Christmas.
2002–2004: International success with Stacie Orrico
Her next effort, the more mainstream and self-titled album Stacie Orrico, was released in 2003 and charted in the U.S. Billboard Top 200 (debuting at #67), Australian ARIAnet and the United Kingdom albums charts. The first mainstream single from this album was "Stuck", which became a worldwide hit, reaching the Top 5 on the majority of the world's charts. This was followed by the single "(There's Gotta Be) More to Life", which peaked in the Top 20 in Australia (#11) and the UK (#12), although, overall, "Stuck" charted better, the exception being in the US. This was then followed by "I Promise", written by Arianna Burmeister and performed by Jack O'Hue and Stacie Orrico(top 30 in the UK), and the final mainstream single "I Could Be the One" (top 40 in the UK on June 2004). Both singles were given limited releases and limited promotion, meaning they did not fare as well as the first two singles. The last three singles were only released to Christian radio in addition to "Strong Enough", which reached #1 as the CD's very first single. Stacie Orrico sold over 500,000 copies in the U.S., enough sales for a Gold certification. The album also sold 600,000 in Japan and an estimated 3.4 million copies worldwide.
In 2004, Orrico's songs "(There's Gotta Be) More to Life" and "Stuck" appeared on the Barbie Hit Mix.
She was nominated in 2004 for the first time at the 46th Annual Grammy Awards in the categorie Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album, but the award was given to Michael W. Smith.
2005–2007: Beautiful Awakening
After her break she decided to work on her new album, called Beautiful Awakening which was set to be released worldwide on August 29, 2006; however, for reasons unknown, the release of the album was postponed in the US. In an interview, she said that the album was one of the best albums she has worked on and was a personal album; the songs are about her life and more. Though almost all of the songs from the new album leaked onto the internet, Beautiful Awakening was still released in Japan, the UK, and other countries. The album features production from Dallas Austin, Dwayne Bastiany, KayGee, and The Underdogs, and writing duties are performed by notable songwriters likeShe'kspere, Track & Field, Anthony Dent, Nate Butler and newcomer Novel and Orrico herself. The album sold 100,000 copies in Japan.
The first single "I'm Not Missing You" went for radio ads on June 20, 2006, but due to little promotion was re-released in October. The song peaked at #19 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart. The second single from the album, "So Simple," was released in Asia in October 2006 and was released in Europe on January 27, 2007. The album release in the U.S. and Canada been canceled and Orrico has no sign of a U.S. release.
In 2007, the belated release of Beautiful Awakening was postponed again. In March, Orrico announced to fans that Virgin Records was merging with Capitol Records and she had left them and would not be releasing the album with that label. She decided to take a long break again, but the break does not seem completely voluntary. Her album is no longer available in the U.S., and her record company terminated co-operation with Stacie and tour dates were called off. The background to these developments is unclear. On her Myspace it was announced that she would spend time in Africa.
2008–present: Fourth studio album
After a long break from the public eye, Stacie Orrico headlined the QB Goes Live concert on March 15, 2008 in Cambodia, performing to an audience of over 50,000 at the Phnom Penh Olympic Stadium. Orrico also appeared at Singfest Festival in Singapore. She also held a short Japan tour in July 2008 in Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka. In 2008, Orrico changed her management to Creative Jenius Agency that specialized in Hip-Hop and R&B artists.
Orrico collaborated with producer and songwriter Toby Gad and Onree Gill in 2008.
Influences
When asked about her influences, she responded: "All of my influences are very soulful musicians – my favorite artist is Lauryn Hill, and I've always loved Whitney Houston and Ella Fitzgerald – and I wanted to explore that direction more." She said when she was young, she listened to Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey and Celine Dion.
Personal life
After the release of Stacie Orrico and the singles from that album, Orrico decided she did not want to pursue her career in music any further, the Christian pop singer exited the business, returned to her family in Seattle and took a waitressing job at a neighborhood seafood restaurant. She started recording again and developed a new album Beautiful Awakening.
She is also best friends with Christian pop singer Rachael Lampa and R&B singer Jayms Madison. Orrico and Lampa have been friends since 2001 and have toured together. Orrico was a bridesmaid at Lampa's wedding in 2010. Orrico has been linked romantically to Daniel Rickli, an entrepreneur from Liverpool, NY, but both parties deny a relationship.
In February 2007, Orrico left Virgin Records due to its merging with Capitol Records. Stacie Orrico then traveled to South Africa, as a volunteer with Cross-Cultural Solutions, to help children with AIDS. She has since returned from South Africa and currently resides in New York.
