STACIE ORRICO has already clocked up two hits with "Stuck" and "More To Life". Despite the pop success Stacie is determined to walk the Christian walk. Mike Rimmer spoke to the teenage star.

Stacie Orrico is a music veteran at 17 years old! She's been recording since she was 12 but it's only been in the closing months of 2003 that she's become known beyond the hallowed walls of the CCM scene. Having made her debut album 'Genuine' for Christian label Forefront, a second album was scheduled for release in 2002 when suddenly mainstream label Virgin stepped into the picture, Stacie was signed and then consigned to the studio to re-record the album and conjure up some hits. Obviously the strategy succeeded as the mighty Virgin marketing team swung into action with high profile magazine interviews, TV appearances and high rotation MTV coverage. A top 10 hit single "Stuck" followed and a second single "More To Life" is in the UK charts as I write this while her self-titled album has finally made it onto the shelves of HMV.

So what is the difference between the album she would have released and the album that has come out on Virgin? "The majority is the same," she explains. " We added four new songs and re-recorded a couple of them just because we recorded them so long ago they were kind of getting outdated. So we had to update a couple of them and add a few new songs. But I would say the majority of new songs we did are a little more guitar driven then straight R&B. I think that has to do with a lot of the people that I was working with at Virgin had come from a rock background, so they had a lot of great relationships with rock writers and stuff. I thought it would be really fun to explore more of that area of music just because I love rock music as well, I just don't usually do it. So yeah, I feel like that's one of the biggest differences."

The mainstream exposure obviously changes the level of Stacie's involvement in the music scene. From a small but significant Christian label to one of the most influential labels, it's quite a leap! How does "going pop" change the ministry aspects of what she is trying to achieve? "I feel like it's staying the same." She elaborates, "Since the first day I signed with Forefront, I knew that I wanted to make music that was going to reach people my age. I knew I wanted to make music that a Christian teenager could relate to, that a non-Christian teenager could relate to, that a Buddhist teenager could relate to. I wanted to sing about the issues that I was dealing with, just as a child in America and in a way that people could understand. I wanted to try to speak about it from a positive standpoint and to try to share anything good that I'd learned out of it. Sometimes it's saying, 'Here, this is how you get through this,' and sometimes it's saying, 'I don't know, I'm 17, I don't know how to get through it but let's try!' you know? So I feel like that's always been the goal and now I'm just getting the chance to do that even more."

Her parents have been involved in ministry since before Stacie was born and as a child Stacie lived in Europe for a number of years. Obviously her family background has influenced her approach to ministry. Stacie remembers, "When I was little, I was a missionary with my family. We lived in the Ukraine. So I think I've always had the mentality of 'Go into all the world. Live your life like Jesus. Go to the prostitutes. Go to the robbers. Go to the, quote, bad people, quote, of the world and bring them something good.' Now that I have the opportunity to do that, I'm just really excited!"

One of the first opportunities to impact the mainstream has been the video for her first hit "Stuck". High rotation on MTV and other shows has brought Stacie into people's lounges. She reports, "It has been in the charts for the last few weeks and that's another great outlet that we have to reach the young people of the world." So has her high profile meant that peoplehave started recognising her on the streets? "Sometimes! It weirds me out, really bad, it really does! That's one thing.I mean, I'm usually pretty calm, pretty laid back, it's like 'Whatever!' but that's one thing that kind of scares me. It makes me go.and it doesn't happen all the time but sometimes I just go, 'What if this ever got to a point where this happens ALL the time?!' I just think of people who walk out on the street and they can't walk half a block without being noticed. Not that I'm saying that I'm going to be like that but it is scary because my privacy is important to me and sometimes I just think 'Wow, that's a little scary!'"