Just call her Corrina.
Amy Grant and Vince Gill‘s youngest daughter is all grown up, and the 23-year-old singer/songwriter is the apple of her dad’s eye. During their Christmas residency, she joined her parents on stage at Ryman Auditorium in December. She wowed the audience with a version of Gill’s song, “When My Amy Prays,” which she adjusted to become “When My Mama Prays.” And, like her dad, she’s gearing up to release new music.
Corrina’s debut album, House On Another Street, will be available on February 7. The 10-song project is a glimpse of where she’s been over the last three years and who she has become.
“There are moments of heaviness, joy, introspection, questioning, a little grunge here and there, and a whole lot of vulnerability,” Corrina said. “All I know how to be is myself, and that is what this album is–an extension of who I am–right now–at 23 years old.”
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Corrina’s Debut Album is Available February 7
Corrina hopes that through sharing her heart and mind, people can also see themselves and connect with her words and melodies.
“I hope my songs can be a safe place to land,” she said. “I love this project with my entire being and am so proud of myself. I am so excited to grow and continue to get to know the woman I will become.”
Gill couldn’t be prouder. Corrina comes from a family of Grammy winners, but Gill said his youngest is likely the most talented of all of them.
“You can’t even describe it,” he said of how it feels to hear Corrina sing. “I don’t care if your kid is a ball player or an actress or a singer or a potter or whatever, but when your kid does something that’s special, it’s the best feeling in the whole wide world.”
According to her dad, what makes Corrina unique is that she can sing anything—no matter what you throw at her.
“That’s what is neat about her,” Gill said. “She’s a real soulful singer, too, and she can do all the runs and all those things soul singers can do. But she’s just got that great thing about her: she wants to do it all. I tell people, I said, ‘Shit, I wish I could have sung that good when I was her age.’”
Gill, a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, The Grand Ole Opry, and The Eagles, believes that singing comes down to “one real important thing. Your voice is compelling—or it isn’t.
Vince Gill: Your Voice is Compelling or It Isn’t
“People can sing the phone book, but the voices don’t ever move me,” he said. “That kid has the ability to have emotion and melancholy and all those beautiful things that a moving voice is supposed to have. People talk about all these singers and how they’re making them great because they’re tuning them. I said, ‘No, they’re not making them great. They’re just making them more in tune. Their voice is either interesting or it isn’t, whether it’s in tune or not.’”
Gill thinks that when people hear Corrina sing, her voice will create much interest. He calls it “pretty undeniable” and drew a comparison to fans discovering Chris Stapleton.
“Everybody was like, ‘Wow, Chris Stapleton,’” Gill recalled. “I said, ‘Well, that’s a game over.’ As soon as he opens his mouth, everybody says, ‘Holy smokes.’ And there are singers like that. Not a lot, but there’s a few. And our kid is pretty special, obviously not because she’s my kid.”
The proud dad fears that having famous parents could make launching a music career harder for Corrina, and explained she’s “doing it all on her own.”
Corrina’s Parents are “The Greatest Gifts”
“It’s healthy,” Gill said. “She doesn’t even want to take our last name. She just wants to be Corrina, which I’ve never been a fan of—one-named singers or three-named singers.”
(He’s joking.)
Corrina called having Grant and Gill as her mom and dad “the greatest gifts.”
“They are kids who followed their dreams,” she said. “To have both my parents be role models of that precious truth–that the dreams you have as a kid really can come true–makes me one wildly lucky kid. By being a witness to their lives, I know that by working hard and never losing sight of your love of music, you can never fail.”
(Photo by Jason Davis/Getty Images for CMT)
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