Stacie Joy Orrico (born March 3, 1986 in Seattle, Washington) is a female American singer of Italian and German descent. She was discovered at a Christian talent contest when she was in her early teens and has since released two successful albums, with a third album on the way in August 2006.
Stacie Orrico was born in Seattle, Washington to missionary parents. Her ancestry is Italian and German. Both parents, Dean and Patty, are reitred missionaries and teachers. Because of her family's constant moving, she has lived in Denver, Colorado, Franklin, Tennessee, and back to Seattle (where her family lives). Stacie is one of five children: older brother, Jesse, older sister, Rachael, and twins, Joshua and Alicia.
From an early age, Stacie has been influenced by music having grown up singing hymns with her family as well as participating in choirs. Having learned piano from an early age, she wrote her first song at age 6 called "Always Answer". She wasn't influenced by her missionary upbringing exclusively, but by mainstream music as well. Some of her influences include Ella Fitzgerald, Whitney Houston and Lauryn Hill.
Stacie 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 of Colorado. Stacie inadvertently entered a high-stakes talent competition, and won. A ForeFront Records executive was on hand and approached her for a record deal (she eventually did sign with them).
Since then, she has released two albums. The first was Genuine in 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 just word-on-mouth alone.
Her next effort, the more mainstream and self-titled 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 single from this album was "Stuck", which became a worldwide hit making it into the Top 5 or Top 10 of the majority of the world's charts. This was followed by the single "(There's Gotta Be) More To Life", which also charted and went top 20 in Australia and the UK. "More To Life" failed to do as well as "Stuck" but still became a hit in many countries. This was then followed by "I Promise" (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, so it is understandable that they didn't fare as well as the first two singles did. The last three singles were only released to Christian radio. Stacie Orrico sold over 500,000 copies in the U.S., also good for Gold certification. The album also sold 600,000 in Japan and an estimated 2.5 million copies worldwide.
Her music is generally looked at as an influential part of the now highly profitable Christian rock industry, along with bands such as P.O.D..
Her new album, Beautiful Awakening, is set to be released on August 29, 2006. The first single, "I'm Not Missing You", will go for radio adds on June 20.
Stacie is currently residing with her family in Seattle, Washington. She spent the past year relaxing in Malibu, a part of Los Angeles, Califorina with friends, one of those being Christian singer Rachael Lampa.
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