Contemporary Christian music superstar Lauren Daigle has returned to the scene with an undeniable enthusiasm for her self-titled album and being able to tour. 

“I’ve got probably the healthiest relationship with my career I’ve ever had, because it’s in balance,” Daigle said in a phone interview. “When I leave to go out and see the world, I get to leave with so much joy and so much passion because I know I’m going to get to come home and love on my family. It feels very much in balance, but not just in balance as far as time is concerned. It feels very much in balance as far as passion is concerned and as far as joy is concerned.”

Before Daigle returns to her New Orleans home, she will bring The Kaleidoscope Tour to Memorial Coliseum on Thursday, March 7, with opening act Blessing Offor.

Panic attack

Getting to a healthy place was not easy for Daigle. She is coming out of a period where she struggled mightily with anxiety and depression and faced serious uncertainty about how to go about a career that became all-consuming.

“I got to a place of rock bottom as I’d known it up until this point, lots of sheer depression, anxiety,” she said.

Shaken by seeing the pandemic put her career on hold, and also upset over political and social divisions, the upheaval came to a head when Daigle suffered a severe panic attack. 

At first, she was scared it was a health emergency, such as a heart attack, but a phone call to a doctor helped her understand what she was experiencing and how to breathe as she battled her anxiety.

What also helped Daigle was she had her mother, a best friend, and her faith.

“My mom and my friend just sat with me throughout the whole thing. It lasted about seven hours and was pretty intense,” Daigle said of her panic attack. “They just encouraged me that everything was OK. So I say that to say that even in the height of paranoia, even in the height of panic, God was still close and He showed me who He was through these people who just sat with me to support me and not judge for what was completely unraveling at the surface.”

It was a long road to recovery after that episode. Daigle’s family continued to provide support as she entered into counseling to try to regain her emotional footing. Daigle said it took her two and a half years to feel like herself again.

Returning to studio

Daigle was still far from feeling normal by the time she began work on her on 2023 self-titled album.

“My manager flew to my home and she was basically like, ‘OK, here’s the deal. What’s the verdict? Are you done with music for good or are you going to step back into this?’ ” Daigle recalled. 

She decided to move forward with music. But didn’t know what kind of album she wanted to make. 

She credits her co-writers with essentially pulling ideas out of her that turned into songs. 

“I feel like it actually forced me to find, ‘OK, what do I want to say? God, what do You want to say? How do I do this and what kind of messages do I need to be bringing for such a time as this, for this hour?’ ” Daigle said. “How do I do that in a time when I feel like I don’t even feel like myself right now? It was really difficult. I’m not going to lie. It was really hard. But I think that’s actually why I love this record so much. It’s because I had to like grow with it, and kind of have growing pains with it and go through learning myself.”

The writing and recording sessions were obviously productive, but what’s even more impressive is the album represents the Louisiana native’s most ambitious, stylistically varied, and accomplished work to date. It touches not only on the highly melodic balladry that has been Daigle’s signature sound, but also sprightly songs that bring out her New Orleans roots, classic soul, ’60s-era pop, and even a touch of hip-hop.

That’s no small accomplishment for an artist who had reached rarefied air with her first two albums, which produced three No. 1 Christian singles, including the Grammy-winning, six-time-platinum “You Say” from her third album, Look Up Child. 

Lauren Daigle added a fourth No. 1 single to her catalog in “Thank God I Do.” 

Daigle is back on tour and is bringing a big production featuring a mix of songs from across her career.

“We are still bringing all the energy, all the fun,” she said. “I think there is going to be 13 of us on stage, 13 or 14 of us, which I’m really excited about. 

“We have our horn section, which I love because it brings that energy and the zeal and the iconic sounds of New Orleans. We’ve got a background vocalist section, drums, bass, guitar, all the things. It’s going to be really sweet.”