GRAMMY®-nominated artist and 42nd Annual Dove Awards’ “Artist of the Year” and “Female Vocalist of the Year,” Francesca Battistelli, is slated to release her third studio album, If We’re Honest, on April 22. Produced by GRAMMY®-nominated and Dove Award-winning producer and her longtime collaborator Ian Eskelin, the album features 11 tracks all co-written by Battistelli. Contemporary Christian Music’s best-selling new artist in 10 years, Battistelli’s debut album My Paper Heart received RIAA Gold certification and a GRAMMY® nomination while her sophomore effort Hundred More Years helped garner her the 2011 Dove Awards for “Artist of the Year,” “Female Vocalist of the Year” and “Pop/Contemporary Song of the Year.” Today, Battistelli’s brand new single “Write Your Story” received the most adds at Christian radio for the week with 73 stations supporting it. Additionally, the singer marked another career milestone off her list this past Saturday when she made her debut at the historic Grand Ole Opry performing her Grammy-nominated single “Free To Be Me” and her hit song “This Is The Stuff.”
Fans can download “Write Your Story” and pre-order If We’re Honest on January 14 at iTunes. A deluxe version featuring three additional tracks will also be available. On February 14, LifeWay will offer a physical version of the single with the pre-buy of the physical album.
In the coming months Battistelli will be touring in support of If We’re Honest commencing with the “Hands of God Tour” with Sanctus Real on February 7 in Decatur, TX. “Hands of God” is also the title of a newly-penned track on her album co-written by and featuring Sanctus Real’s Matt Hammitt. Launching on March 20 at Saddleback in Lake Forest, CA, she’ll be featured on the Word Entertainment / LightWorkers Media (Mark Burnett and Roma Downey) partnership “The Bible: Son of God Tour 2014.” Battistelli also has songs on the companion CD to the upcoming 20th Century Fox feature film and LightWorker’s Media production “Son of God,” SON OF GOD: Music Inspired by the Epic Motion Picture, and on the companion CD, The Bible: Music Inspired By The Epic Mini-Series, to the massive History channel mini-series “The Bible.”
Since her debut in 2008, Francesca Battistelli has earned a Grammy nomination (Best Gospel Performance), six Dove Awards including 2011 “Artist of the Year” and 22 Dove Award nominations. Both her debut album, My Paper Heart (certified gold in 2012), and her 2011 sophomore release, Hundred More Years, took the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s Christian Album chart. With over 978,000 in album sales to date and over 1.8 million single downloads, she is the best-selling new artist in the genre in the past decade. Her music has also been featured on TriStar Picture’s “Soul Surfer,” Columbia Picture’s “Julie and Julia,” TLC’s “Jon & Kate Plus 8,” ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” NBC’s “The Biggest Loser,” Fox’s “So You Think You Can Dance,” and several other television and movie outlets. In addition, this past fall she was featured on over three million Diet Pepsi Cans throughout the U.S.
