Daigle said she wasn’t trying to sound like a “cliché” Christian, but the line from the song that jumped out to her the most was “God shed his grace on thee.”
“That line, it just really gripped me to the core,” she said, pointing out she frequently sings songs about God. “But when you see a song that is meant for something else, and it still includes the power of God in it,” she said, that is powerful.
“It’s meant to honor our nation and show the beauty of our nation, right?” Daigle said. But it also communicates, “Wow, God has done something for this nation. There’s something unique about this.”
Arroyo brought up the controversy that erupted when Daigle joined worship activist Sean Feucht at one of his Let Us Worship rallies in New Orleans in December 2020. Feucht held these worship events throughout the country during the pandemic in protest of COVID-19 lockdowns.
Daigle told Arroyo she was simply riding her bike through New Orleans when Feucht texted her, urging her to come. When she did, he brought her onstage.
Daigle said she heard ahead of time that Feucht had gotten the permits he needed to hold the outdoor gathering. “So it was approved by the government here,” she said, adding that “two weeks later, there was a convention, so I think it’s all right.”
“There were so many police, and they had barricades and all this stuff,” Daigle said. “So I was like, ‘Ok, so clearly, this is ok.’ That’s what I thought.”
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“Honestly, though,” she said, “it was such a moment to look out—this is the reality, regardless of what media and anybody wants to say—to look out and see so many people that were truly desperate, like actually desperate, people staying in their home for so long. Finally, the city has started to open.”
However, following the event, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell issued a statement saying that the event was “unpermitted” and that it had “endangered lives.” Cantrell called for Daigle to be removed from the lineup of the upcoming “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve,” saying that Daigle had “harmed our people, she risked the lives of our residents, and she strained our first responders in a way that is unconscionable.”
Daigle said, “I was shocked, to be honest. I was like, ‘Wait, you, you approved of all of this…this is kind of strange.” She went home to Lafayette, got in her parents bed, and pulled the covers over her head.
