Bri

With a powerful voice, modern production, and a fresh, accessible image, Briana Babineaux (known to fans simply as Bri) represents a younger generation of worship music artists. She gained fame with her debut album, Keys to My Heart, which topped the Billboard gospel charts. Her second album, The Encounter (2020), was recorded live and featured multiple guest artists. Following a series of personal challenges, Bri issued her assured third LP, Brianna, in 2025.

Born in Hawaii and raised in Lafayette, Louisiana, by a single mother, Babineaux spent much of her childhood in church, where she started singing in a gospel choir at the age of five. In 2012, she enrolled at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, studying criminal justice. During her junior year, a friend secretly posted a video of Babineaux singing <a href="spotify:artist:5kCUi6SWpesUXTdMVdTUqs">Tonex</a>'s "Make Me Over Again" to YouTube. The cover went viral and attracted the attention of <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Marquis+Boone+Enterprises%22">Marquis Boone Enterprises</a>. She signed with <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22MBE%22">MBE</a> and released her debut EP, I'll Be the One, in June 2015. Her 2016 full-length debut, Keys to My Heart, included inspirational R&B-tinged gospel, hip-hop flourishes ("Love You Forever," written by <a href="spotify:artist:1BZ9lMh5GpWLbiHTnSIEdO">Uncle Reece</a>), and even intense rock edges ("Jacob's Song" and "I'm Desperate" with Sha' Simpson). Produced by <a href="spotify:artist:3gkjsx07pxCSh00Oyf1al9">Korey Bowie</a> (<a href="spotify:artist:2hWr3AjjKOCVmWcwvuT4uM">Angie Stone</a>, Casey J) and featuring songwriting assistance from <a href="spotify:artist:1QgAQ6qXAMN1Gkxk0AEy7i">Bryan Andrew Wilson</a>, the album was recorded before a live studio audience of family, friends, and fans at Atlanta's Doppler Studios. It was the first album to debut at the top of the Billboard gospel charts without the aid of radio and television or previous sales, selling 5,000 copies in its first week.

2020 saw the release of The Encounter, recorded live at Living the Word International Church in New Orleans, and featuring guest spots from <a href="spotify:artist:41OAtBkqAXVdMlteKlhrZz">Todd Dulaney</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:3uwJ062m79j5I0qr6U4NWY">Psalmist Raine</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:60JjUCBeLsuJ95WFvqFiFz">Dante Bowe</a>. A period of personal upheaval, including divorce and becoming a single mother, preceded her 2024 marriage to Christian rapper Emanuel Lambert (aka <a href="spotify:artist:2ISIE0MEDMdAF2LDMLrVD4">Da' T.R.U.T.H.</a>) and the release of her eponymous third long-player, 2025's Brianna. ~ Neil Z. Yeung, Rovi