Marie Graciela Miller (born April 9, 1989) is an American modern

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk horror ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Fo ...

singer-songwriter who often blends a mesh of modern folk, pop and country. Earlier in her career, her song "Cold" charted on Christian music charts. Her first single from the larger EP, "You're Not Alone" was supported by CMT and

VH1 VH1 (originally an initialism for Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network that launched on January 1, 1985, and is currently owned by the MTV Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global's networks division based in New Y ...

, and was downloaded over 100,000 times on Amazon.com. Miller's second single "6'2" was featured on ABC's

Dancing with the Stars ''Strictly Come Dancing (widely known as Dancing with the Stars)'' is an international television franchise based on the format of the British TV series '' Strictly Come Dancing,'' itself a successor to the show ''Come Dancing'' (1950–1998) ...

. On October 28 she became friends with Danny Vicinanzo. On October 30 that friendship was confirmed on the social media site "Facebook". She has been dating Danny secretly since January 24, 2016.

History

Miller was born, Marie Graciela Miller, Work ID No. 884309047 ISWC No. T9125994458 on April 9, 1989, in

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

, Texas and she grew up for the first nine years of her life in California before finally relocating to the Shenandoah Valley area of Virginia, around the town of

Washington, Virginia The town of Washington, Virginia, commonly known as Little Washington (in relation to the larger Washington, D.C., City of Washington, DC nearby), is a historic village located in the eastern foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains near Shenandoa ...

more precisely

Huntly, Virginia Huntly is an unincorporated community in Rappahannock County, in the U.S. state of Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United ...

, while she began singing at the age of 7. She is the third of 10 children. Miller was raised

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

at St. Peter Mission in Washington, Virginia. She grew up an avid reader and was inspired as a songwriter by the works of

Fyodor Dostoyevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. () was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist. He is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in both Russian literature, Russian and world literature, and many of his works are consider ...

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution re ...

C. S. Lewis Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer, literary scholar and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Magdalen College, Oxford (1925–1954), and Magdalen ...

, and

J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlinson ...

. At the age of 12 she joined her family band, playing festivals and trading off lead and harmony vocals in duets with her sister. Marie plays mandolin, guitar, piano and

bouzouki The bouzouki (, also ; ; alt. pl. ''bouzoukia'', , from Greek , from Turkish ) is a musical instrument popular in West Asia (Syria, Iraq), Europe and Balkans (Greece, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Turkey). It is a member of the long-necked lute fam ...

and says her music simply represents the stories of her everyday life. Her self-titled indie debut EP was released in 2005 which labeled her as "one of the best independent artists that you should know about". ''

Christianity Today ''Christianity Today'' is an evangelical Christian media magazine founded in 1956 by Billy Graham. It is published by Christianity Today International based in Carol Stream, Illinois. ''The Washington Post'' calls ''Christianity Today'' "eva ...

s Top 10 CDs included the EP in their Top 10 CDs. The success of her EP led to

Curb Records Curb Records (also known as Asylum-Curb and formerly known as MCG Curb) is an American record label started by Mike Curb, originally as Sidewalk Records in 1963. From 1969 to 1973, Curb merged with MGM Records where Curb served as President of M ...

signing Miller in September 2006. Miller released the song "Cold" in January 2007 which was picked up on Contemporary Christian music radio stations in the United States. The song hit the Contemporary Christian charts in 2007 and remained on the charts for four months. She released the single "You're Not Alone" on January 8, 2013. It was "written as a battle cry for a friend who was going through a really tough time, and he felt incredibly alone. I wanted to fight for him and somehow take away his loneliness". Marie's single debuted inside the top 50 of iTunes' Top Singer-Songwriter Songs chart. On May 5, 2014,

James Maslow James David Maslow (born July 16, 1990) is an American actor, singer, dancer and model. He played the role of James Diamond on Nickelodeon's ''Big Time Rush'', had roles in ''The Frozen Ground'' and '' Seeds of Yesterday'', and is a member of the ...

and

Peta Murgatroyd Peta Jane Murgatroyd (born 14 July 1986) is an Australian and American professional Latin dancer. She performed in the international tour of the dance production ''Burn the Floor'', including its Broadway run. She is best known for her appearance ...

danced to Miller's "6'2" on ABC's

Performing for Pope Francis

On September 26, 2015, Miller performed for

Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...

at the Festival of Families in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for an audience of 750,000. The performance aired live on television networks

Fox News The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conservatism in the United States, conservative List of news television channels, news and political commentary Television stati ...

and

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

''Letterbox''

Marie's debut album''Letterbox'' was released on April 28, 2017. She collaborated with producers

Chad Copelin Chad Copelin is an American producer, audio engineer, musician, and songwriter from Norman, Oklahoma. Copelin got his start playing in local bands and majoring in music composition and after three years of school, left to collaborate with various ...

(

Sufjan Stevens Sufjan Stevens ( ; born July 1, 1975) is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He has released ten solo studio albums and multiple collaborative albums with other artists. Stevens has received Grammy and Academy Award nomina ...

Ben Rector Benjamin Evans Rector (born November 6, 1986) is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer based in Nashville, Tennessee. He is an independent artist, and releases music under his own label OK Kid Recordings. Rector's career has with ...

Train A train (from Old French , from Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles th ...

) and

Eric Rosse Eric Ivan Rosse is an American composer, songwriter, record producer, and mixer. Rosse started playing piano at age 8, eventually studying orchestration and arranging with Joe Rotundi, Sr. His style is influenced by soul, rock, art pop, and cl ...

(

Sara Bareilles Sara Beth Bareilles ( ; born December 7, 1979) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actress. She has sold over three million albums and over 15 million singles in the United States. Bareilles has earned various accolades, including ...

Tori Amos Tori Amos (born Myra Ellen Amos; August 22, 1963) is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. She is a classically trained musician with a mezzo-soprano vocal range. Having already begun composing instrumental pieces on piano, Amos won a full ...

, Mary Lambert). Marie credits Copelin with helping strike the curated sound on the record saying:

"Trying to find the right fit to make the songs reflect what my sound was and not making it sound too country or making it sound too pop–making it that perfect blend of folk and pop is pretty hard to do, and I think Chad did an amazing job. But that took a long time."

Billboard joyfully likens the album to "a combination of

Shania Twain Eilleen Regina "Shania" Twain ( ; born August 28, 1965) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. She has sold over 100 million records, making her one of the List of best-selling music artists, best-selling music artists of all time and the best-sel ...

and Sara Bareilles" takes Miller's voice and dives into narrative songwriting that speaks of the vulnerable and empowered sides of relationships and interactions. She told ''Blurred Culture'':

“It’s called Letterbox because the songs are basically letters to people... Basically, all of the songs are things that I’ve wanted to say to someone and I just couldn’t do it… So, I wrote a song about it. This album smy letterbox. My letters to people.”

Discography

* ''You're Not Alone EP'' (2013) * ''Letterbox'' (2017)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Marie 1989 births American performers of Christian music Living people American folk singers American folk guitarists People from Washington, Virginia Catholics from Virginia 21st-century American singers 21st-century American guitarists