As the snow fell – and kept falling – in St. Charles Parish in January, Ella Grace Francis and her mom, Stephanie Francis, were stuck in Chicago, where the snow was nowhere to be found.
The irony of the unusual weather was not lost on Ella Grace and Stephanie: “It never snows in New Orleans! It always snows in Chicago!”
The significance of the moment was not lost on the mother and daughter, either.
There they were – over 900 miles from their home in Destrehan, where Ella Grace was recording a song for her first album, “Waves,” with the Grammy award winning choir, Soul Children of Chicago.
“We cried a lot,” Ella Grace said of the opportunity. “It was beautiful. That moment – sitting, listening to them sing the song that me and [my producer] wrote was such a beautiful, surreal moment.”
Singing with the choir was another accomplishment on Ella Grace’s ever-growing list. At 13 years old, she sang the national anthem in front of 70,000 people in the Caesars Superdome before the nationally televised New Orleans Saints vs. Carolina Panthers game. Since then, she has sung the national anthem for the New Orleans Pelicans, Tulane, LSU, Nola Motor Speedway and more.
She spent three seasons at Dollywood Theme Park performing the lead role of Sara in Dollywood’s production of “O Holy Night.” In 2021, she performed alongside her mother for weekly concerts at Dollywood Dreammore Resort. She was selected for the Kristin Chenoweth Broadway Bootcamp in Oklahoma, and she recently sang in Time Square with the Broadway Green Alliance. She has also been cast in major regional productions with Rivertown Theaters and Jefferson Performing Arts Society.
Dwayne LaGrange, a friend of the Francis family and a community organizer, said Ella Grace has a way of capturing people’s attention through her voice. He heard her sing for the first time at the parish’s annual July 3 event about five years ago.
“I was in awe from there,” LaGrange said. “Wow, this young lady can really sing. And she was passionate about what she was doing.”
Ella Grace’s nine-song album, which was released on all streaming platforms on May 14, hit No. 1 on the Children’s Charts on iTunes within 24 hours of the album’s release.
“It stayed there for three days,” Ella Grace said. “I saw No. 1 on the charts, and I started crying because that’s just such a dream come true to have a No. 1 record.”
The album is produced by Sir Billy Dorsey Jr., a three-time Grammy winning producer, who Ella Grace calls an incredible person and musical genius. Dorsey and Ella Grace collaborated on the songwriting for the album. Ella Grace’s mom also helped co-write songs, and her brothers, Andrew and Caleb, provide vocals on the song “Legacy.” The album speaks to the waves of grief that people go through after loss. The catalyst for the album was Ella Grace’s own loss and grief – she lost both of her grandmothers within eight months.
“I was very close with both of them,” she said. “They were very much the rock of my family, and it was hard to experience my own grief. But then to also see my family and the people closest to me grieving – it was a very dark period in my life.”
But for Ella Grace, there was hope, too.
“I wrote about grieving as a Christian,” she said. “Being allowed to feel those feelings but still finding hope in the fact that they’re in heaven.”
She said she hopes the album helps others know they are not alone.
“I want people to know that they can keep going and they can keep breathing,” she said. “And God will turn something broken into something beautiful and just not to lose hope. I just want this album to be a beacon of hope for people who are grieving.”
Stephanie said the family has received notes from counselors and chaplains who have used the music to comfort grieving families.
“I know that my mom and my mother-in-law would be so happy to know that the pain is being redeemed to help other people,” Stephanie said.
Stephanie’s mother was a professional dancer, and her father earned a master’s degree in music. Ella Grace’s mom and brothers sing, and her dad plays guitar. Ella Grace was singing before she could talk. She also plays piano and guitar.
“I grew up in a very musical family,” Ella Grace said. “My mom always sang to me when I was little, and then I started doing theater, and I really just found a passion for performing and for singing.”
As she got older, she started writing her own songs. She wrote and released her first song, “Here I Am,” in 2023.
“And now we’re here with this amazing album that I’m so excited to share,” she said.
