Jaci Velasquez
Contemporary Christian and Latin pop singer with 16 No. 1 singles and three platinum albums.
Jacquelyn Davette Velasquez
Jaci Velasquez was born in Houston on 15 October 1979 and grew up in an evangelical church where both parents were singers and pastors. From the age of nine she toured with her father, a full-time singing evangelist, first singing backup and then solo, and released three independent records between 1988 and 1992 before a Myrrh Records representative discovered her on the road.
Her breakthrough album Heavenly Place (1996), released when she was sixteen, produced five No. 1 songs, went platinum and made her the first solo artist in Christian music to reach gold with a debut. In 1998 she signed with Sony Discos and, with producer Rudy Pérez, recorded Llegar a Ti, whose title track was the first Christian song to top Billboard's Hot Latin Tracks chart; Mi Corazón won a Latin Billboard Music Award in 2002.
She has sold almost three million albums in the United States, with three platinum and three gold records, 16 No. 1 singles and six more top-ten hits, multiple Dove Awards including New Artist and Female Vocalist of the Year, three Grammy nominations and an American Music Award nomination. From 2010 to 2016 she co-hosted the syndicated Family-Friendly Morning Show.
How the name is written
Houston-born, she records under the plain U.S. spelling Velasquez; her Spanish-language albums keep it unchanged.
Sources
Facts in this profile are drawn from the Wikipedia article(s) linked below, consulted on 21 September 2026; the text is original. Wikipedia (English) · Wikipedia (Spanish)
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