Lauren Daigle Jeremy Cowart
Contemporary Christian music singer-songwriter and two-time Grammy winner Lauren Daigle brought her Kaleidoscope Tour to Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Saturday (April 6), as the Lafayette, Louisiana-born Daigle ushered in a cavalcade of sounds, a tight-knit horn section, superb backing vocalists, a full band, and a brightly-hued, joyous production for the roughly two-hour show.
Daigle, who has notched six pinnacle reachers on Billboard‘s Hot Christian Songs chart, has long approached her music with a free-flowing, genreless mindset, one that positions melodies and lyrics as leaning into a vast spectrum of sounds, each a capable vessel of hope, healing and flourishing. As she has amassed success both in Contemporary Christian Music and pop music (most notably, her 2018 album Look Up Child, which debuted at No. 3 on the all-genre Billboard 200, while her song “You Say” reached the top 30 on the all-genre Hot 100), Daigle has made the natural step up to headlining arenas — and with it has constructed a show filled with colors, sights and sounds meant to capture and hold the audience’s attention from the first, uptempo moments of “These Are the Days.”
Helming uptempo anthems such as “Look Up Child,” as well as soaring ballads such as “Valuable” was Daigle’s soaring vocal, which has often drawn comparisons to both Adele and Joss Stone, as well as her joyous, easygoing performance style as she and her crew of musicians danced and shimmied around the mainstage and catwalk stretching into the middle of Bridgestone Arena. The full band resided aloft an elevated platform, placing them visually in the center of the massive video wall that shone an array of colors and images throughout the evening, while Daigle and her crew of vocalists/musicians/dancers took up residence on the mainstage.
“This song is my favorite,” was a refrain of regular occurrence from Daigle throughout the set, as she punctuated the evening with stories behind some of her songs. Her fourth, eponymous studio album — which released last year via Atlantic Records/Centricity Music — saw Daigle further embrace mainstream pop, welcoming artists including Gary Clark Jr., and Jon Batiste, as well as songwriting prowess from songwriters including Shane McAnally and Natalie Hemby.
As a companion to her song “Kaleidoscope Jesus,” she spoke of the soul-connecting power of touring and live concerts, comparing each concert to looking through a kaleidoscope and knowing that each turn of the instrument brings a new collage of shapes and colors unique to that moment.
She noted that the song nods to a memory of playing with kaleidoscopes at her aunt’s house as a child.
“When you look inside of a kaleidoscope, and put it up to the light, there are different shapes and colors, some have rough edges and some have smooth edges,” Daigle told the crowd at one point. “Then you put them up to the light and they make this beautiful image… you bring all of your different stories to this show; some of you are struggling, some are having the time of your lives, but we bring those stories to God and put them up to the light and ask, ‘God what are you going to do through all of this?’ and it becomes a beautiful moment.”
Daigle’s hope-giving work extends beyond song and stage; during the concert, attendees were encouraged to sponsor a child through an organization Daigle works closely with, ChildFund, which aims to provide children around the world with food, clean water, education, healthcare and more. Daigle, who also sponsors a child through the program, noted that more than 700 children were sponsored by attendees at Bridgestone that evening.
Opening the show was Nigerian-born singer-songwriter Blessing Offor, known for his 2023 hit “Brighter Days” and his feature on TobyMac’s song “The Goodness.“ “This show means the world to me because this is my hometown,” Offor told the crowd.
Seated at a keyboard at the front of the main stage, he offered a Sterling display of his soulful, octave-leaping tenor vocal. He sang songs aimed at elevating his fellow musicians, particularly those struggling in the early days of their careers in “Don’t We All.” He sang “Believe,” and Tin Roof,” which Offor wrote with songwriter Natalie Hemby. CCM mainstay Chris Tomlin later recorded the song with Offor and included it on his country-leaning album Chris Tomlin & Friends. He followed with “My Tribe,” the title track to his 2023 album, and concluded with his breakthrough song “Brighter Days,” which drew the audience to appropriately light up three arena with a sea of cell phone lights.
Below, we highlight five top moments from Daigle’s set:
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“Rescue”
Daigle’s ceiling-scraping, soulful vocals have helped propel her to one of CCM’s most recognizable vocalists, paired with her often soaring ballads. At Bridgestone, those ballads brought about many of the evening’s most memorable moments, including “Rescue,” which inspired an array of cell phone lights to pop up around the arena.
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Daigle’s Band of Music Makers
While Daigle was the undisputed star of the evening, her musicians–including a full band, a horn section and three vocalists–brought just as much energy and dazzling musicianship to the evening. Daigle’s bandmembers, like Daigle herself, donned clothes splashed with an array of bright pink, green and yellow hues, and often traveled with Daigle around the stage, punctuating the performance with glorious harmonies and dancing, further fueling the high-octane evening.
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Crowd Connection
Overall, Daigle’s joy in performing came across as free-spirited and uncalculated; instead, Daigle spoke to the audience of thousands as if they were close friends gathered in a living room. She spoke of her admiration for teachers, noting that many in her family are teachers.
“People often ask me what I would do if I wasn’t doing music, and I always say I would be a teacher,” Daigle said. “Teachers have one of the coolest jobs and are changing lives.”
She also spoke candidly about her struggles with a panic attack that led to writing new music, and lovingly recalled her childhood, what she called her Louisiana “Cajun swamp” roots and staying connected to her family in Louisiana. She later took a moment to interact with a young girl in the crowd, as Daigle knelt down to the edge of the stage and spoke words of affirmation to young girl.
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A Worship-Filled Moment
While many of Daigle’s songs offer lyricism in a way that often translates to both religious and secular audiences, her uptempo-filled set at Bridgestone gave way to a moment of worship-filled moment, as Daigle and members of her band sat on the circular-shaped edge of the catwalk stage, Bluebird Cafe-style. The set segued into a cover of the Chris Tomlin hit “Good, Good Father,” as Daigle and her bandmates led the audience through an extended moment of heavenly-aimed singing.
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Daigle Gets Closer
For the majority of the concert, Daigle crisscrossed the mainstage of the arena and ventured out onto the catwalk stretching into the middle of the audience. But as the concert drew to a close, Daigle surprised the audience in the upper reaches in the back of the arena by pulling a move often seen in country and pop circles, by performing her smash hit, 17-week Billboard Christian Airplay hit “You Say” on a satellite stage at the opposite end of the arena. From there, she made her way through the crowd, shaking hands and taking pictures with audience members as made the trek back to the catwalk stage.
The crowd reaction was a testament to Daigle’s soul-connecting power as one of Contemporary Christian Music’s most engaging entertainers.
