Jaci Velasquez: Chasing Papi star with a blazing trail of album hits - Main Cover - Cover Story

Latino Leaders: The National Magazine of the Successful American Latino, August-Sept, 2003 by Miriam Martinez

When a clean-living, church girl, whose mom accompanies her to work, beats Jennifer Lopez, Shakira, and Christina Aguilera to a Latin Billboard Award, she's changing something in the entertainment world. Jaci Velasquez's voice and faith have reached out to millions of nonreligious people and won her endless accolades and awards.

Billboard reported that Jaci Velasquez's voice is capable of expressing every subtle emotion in a song: a voice that reflects her religious upbringing and carries her lyrics to audiences way beyond church walls and traditional Christian music fans. And moviegoers heard that voice in her first acting role earlier this year in the movie Chasing Papi.

The 23-year-old singer has clearly broken out of the "up and coming" artist category. Velasquez has a portfolio full of outstanding achievements. With seven albums under her belt, she also has three Grammy Award nominations, four Dove Awards for Christian music, three RIAA-certified Platinum recordings, five Billboard Award nomination, and has notched up a Premio Lo Nuestro award. Continuing along the fast lane to stardom, she cruised through Hollywood's main entrance to play Patricia in a Chasing Papi lead role.

Her musical and religious influences were strong from the start, being a daughter of musician parents--her father was the lead singer of the Four Galileans, a Christian music group.

According to family folklore, while singing in church one Sunday they were stunned when they heard a voice piping out "Our God Reigns," and realized it was two-year-old Jaci's voice, coming from the nursery. A year later she made her solo debut and sang for audiences alongside her parents who performed in Houston churches. When she was ten, her parents sold the house to tour the country giving Christian music shows.

"My parents weren't just talking and singing about something. They were living it," she said. To them it was not just a pastime. It was their lives. It was the gospel. "That was a greater influence on me than any music."

Velasquez's ethnicity, was another major childhood influence.

Her mother has Mexican ancestors. Between both sides of the family Velasquez is Spanish, French, Scottish, Arabic, and Mexican, of to put it more briefly, American. Her Spanish-Mexican ancestors were Texans before the state rebelled against Mexico and joined the United States in the 19th Century. As Texan-Americans are fond of saying, '"We never crossed the border. The border crossed us."

She grew up in Houston in a white, English-speaking neighborhood where only one other household was Hispanic.

"Those neighbors were really embarrassed about being Hispanic. They tried everything they could to not be Hispanic," she said.

"My family was very proud of its roots. We all spoke English perfectly--better than Spanish--but you learned to respect the culture. My family was really, really instrumental in my knowing my roots and appreciating them."

Her family also encouraged her to develop her voice early in life and prepared her for some of the later pressures she would face. She won her first major contest at age 11, beating out 3,000 competitors, and two years later she performed at the White House.

At age 14, Velasquez's main break came when her family performed in Texas. A pastor drew her to the attention of talent spotter Mike Atkins, who became her manager two years later, quickly signing her to Myrrh Records.

Spotting gold, the firm and Velasquez wasted no time, and she soon had a hit CD, Heavenly Place, which made it to the top ten of SoundScan's Christian Music Chart in 1997 and held its ground lot 83 weeks on Billboards Heatseekers chart. It was her first million-selling recording and became the fastest-selling solo debut in the history of Christian music.

The adolescent's ambition drove her to tour the United States and Europe, performing more than 120 concerts. She became a teenage singing sensation with album sales over the three million mark, and followed it up with a Simon & Schuster book deal to reach people with a series of her inspirational thoughts and words.

In 1999, she honored her Mexican/ Spanish heritage by releasing her first Spanish-language disc, Llegar a Ti, which also became a hit.

"My family kept speaking Spanish because in the Latin culture you continue the tradition," Velasquez said. "My parents spoke" Spanish at home when they didn't want me to know what they were saying."

Although Velasquez sings in Spanish, her understanding of the language is limited, and someone translates them for her from English. Not that that detracts from her appreciation of it. "The thing about Spanish is that it's such a passionate language that lends itself to romance and beauty. It's amazing," she said.

It's also helped her career. She has been the voice and image of Target stores' publicity campaigns for Hispanic markets, John Frieda's Frizz&Ease hair products, and Doritos.

"In Hollywood you get typecast when you're a Hispanic. But in the music business people rake you a little more seriously. Latino people are generally talented," Velasquez said.