Hollyn: A new name with a Christian pop hit

Gotee Records artist HOLLYN weighs in with her "Alone" single.

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A couple of myths currently doing the rounds on the pop scene is that it needs a TV talent search to push an artist to music buyers' attention and that in the Christian music world the days of pop princesses of the calibre of Amy Grant are now over. The recent emergence of Lauren Daigle shows that a new wave of female talent is now coming onto the Christian radio scene and now Lauren is joined by an Ohio-born singer who despite being pretty unsuccessful on American Idol has gone on to have a major Christian radio hit.

Holly Miller was born on 3rd January 1997 in Waverly, Ohio. Hollyn grew up singing in church and like thousands of others entered Season 12 of American Idol. Although she made it to the Hollywood week rounds she was soon eliminated. As it turned out though she was spotted by Toby McKeehan, otherwise known as TobyMac, who as well as being the long established CCM star is the CEO of Christian music's Gotee Records. McKeehan was very impressed by Hollyn's R&B-tinged voice and her songwriting ability. Signed to Gotee, Hollyn was introduced to the Christian music public with the songs "Lights Shine Bright" and "Backseat Driver", both of which she co-wrote, on TobyMac's bestselling 'This Is Not A Test' album. Hollyn's debut single "Alone" was written by Hollyn, McKeehan, producer Bryan Fowler and Toby's son, rapper TRU, who guests on the track. The song was soon playing on most US Christian radio stations.

Hollyn's self-titled EP showed she was a talented songwriter, the lady co-writing five of the six tracks on her debut. Two tracks, "Hey Mama" and "Nothin' On You", were produced by the Grammy-winning production team COBRA (Dirty Rice and Joseph Prielzony) who also recently worked on the Lecrae hit album 'Anomaly'. In fact 'Hollyn' features a cover of Lecrae's award-winning "All I Need Is You".

Hollyn is about to go on tour across the US with TobyMac. She said, "It's a privilege for me to go up on stage and sing. God has given me this gift so that I can share my faith. The thing that makes me the happiest is meeting people after the shows. I love that time! Right now my life has never been so out of control, but it's a beautiful thing. The Lord is taking me somewhere. I don't know where he is taking me, but I'm excited about it."