Who Is Fleurie? History, Songs & Facts

Lauren Strahm was born in 1990 in a suburb of Detroit. She is better known by her stage name Fleurie and is an American musician living in Nashville, Tennessee. Lauren took piano lessons as a child, and like many artists, sang in church with her family. She began writing songs at age 11 but did not share them with anyone until she was 17. At age 21 she chose to move to Nashville after college to pursue music as a career.

Whether you know it or not, you’ve certainly heard Fleurie’s soft, ethereal voice crooning through your speakers from somewhere.

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HISTORY

In 2009, under the name Lauren Strahm, she released her first album, a collection of Christian-themed material titled Fly. She actually planned to major in interior design, but her father really made her consider her options.

“I remember my dad telling me, ‘I’ll pay for you to go to design school, and then we can laugh about it someday when you’re in the music industry,’” Strahm recalls. “I had this fear that I was maybe just a big fish in a small pond—that I wasn’t talented enough to really go anywhere with music. But when I told my dad that he said to me, ‘I think you really do have what it takes, and I just know that music is going to keep finding you no matter what you do.’”

So, Lauren ended up majoring in music. She traveled to Australia and attended Hillsong College in Sydney. After graduating, she moved to Nashville, Tennessee where she began to mix genres and make friends in the industry. Soon, she was writing for film and television, while doing her own thing on the side. Using a friend’s home studio, she created her first set of songs under the Fleurie moniker.

In 2013 Strahm released Fear and Fable. This was followed by the 2015 EP Arrows. Off of that album, “Still Your Girl” was selected by NPR for their Songs We Love series, a part of the All Songs Considered podcast.

Her first album, Love and War, was released on September 19, 2016.

“Hurts Like Hell” was one of the 2016 releases that rolled in over 45 million streams on Spotify.

She was also featured on Billboard #1 breakout hip hop artist NF’s track “Mansion,” and opened for his first sold-out cross-country US tour in fall 2016.

In 2017, Fleurie’s work with Tommee Profitt “Hurricane” was used in the season 2 finale of Shadowhunters. This happens to be one of my favorite songs by both of them and when you see the video, it takes your breath away. This was not their only collaboration.

Fleurie released her follow-up LP, Portals in August 2018, charting in over 20 countries around the world. From that album, the single, “Out of the Blue” was featured on S15 Premiere, E1 of Grey’s Anatomy.

She toured internationally including headline dates in China and support dates with Owl City in Japan and South Korea in November 2018. She then planned another tour, this time with fellow singer Ruelle before releasing Portals: The B-Sides in November 2019.

On April 30, 2020, “Breathe” was remixed by the Riot Music Team for the official launch video of Riot Studio’s game Legends of Runeterra.

STYLE AND INFLUENCE

“More than anything, I want my music to take people into a dreamlike state. At first, that might feel like escapism, but over time it can pull you deeper into your emotions. I want my songs to help people to open up a bit, and imagine more possibilities for the world and what might be.”

— Fleurie

What’s amazing about Fleurie is that her music does the splits between two genres that are so far removed from one another. She is best described as singing and songwriting music that falls somewhere between contemporary folk and electronic pop. And when she mixes those two, it’s with a pinch of personal, deep, and sometimes dark lyricism as well as an ethereal sound.

She has said that E.E. Cummings and Edgar Allan Poe are some of her favorite poets, and you can definitely see their influence in not only her lyrics, but in her vision for a lot of her videos and music.

Her second EP had her growing into electronic influences. Arrows, her album of five songs from 2015, embraces a lusher production style as well. Coming from the early background of writing for television and video game projects, Fleurie’s sound can be somewhat cinematic at times, captivating on an epic scale at others.

The cinematic quality of her music is what put her in perfect line with another Christian producer working in the Nashville industry – Tommee Proffitt. In this circle of professional relationships came collaborations with artists such as NF, Ruelle, Jung Youth, and Sam Tinnesz.

Also in 2018, she collaborated with electronic pop artist Ruelle on her song “Carry You” which was used in Shadowhunters. As a matter of fact, the two planned to tour together in 2020 until the pandemic put a dampener on that.

I believe concord.com explained Fleurie’s musical style best when they posted this on their roster:

A singer/songwriter who plays multiple instruments and co-produces her own material, Fleurie is an artist’s artist. She creates lush, layered music with a skeleton crew, and her songs mix mainstream-worthy melodies with arrangements that push creative boundaries. In other words, this songwriter isn’t chasing trends. She’s creating them.

In her 2019 single “Constellate”, from her album Portals, Fleurie really showcases her talent with not only poetic lyrics, but a unique mixture of electronic instrumentation that calls back electro-indie to Britpop genres. The sound still swirls into an atmospheric vibe. That is almost always present in her music.

On April 30, 2020, “Breathe” which was co-produced with Tommee Profitt, was remixed by the Riot Music Team for the official launch video of Riot Studio’s game Legends of Runeterra. It sounds very different than the original, but that’s to be expected.

COLLABORATIONS & CONNECTIONS:

She was featured on Billboard #1 breakout hip hop artist NF’s track “Mansion,” and opened for his first sold-out cross-country US tour in fall 2016.

Since that breakout record, Fleurie’s songs have been featured in over 100 films and TV shows. Specifically, the songs “Breathe”, “Love and War”, “Soldier”, “Turns You into Stone”, and “Hurts Like Hell” have been heard on trailers and shows from Grey’s Anatomy, Pretty Little Liars, Shadowhunters, Outlander, Bones, Scream, Cloak & Dagger, Reign, and The Originals. “Wildwood” was featured in Containment, Wynonna Earp, and Finding Carter among others.

Her songs have also been featured in the video game, Assassin’s Creed.

“Don’t Let Me Down”, off of her album Love and War was sampled by Kendrick Lamar on his song “FEEL”.

All of Fleurie’s releases have been under her own label, although in some cases, she is known to work closely with Tommee Profitt, co-producing when they have worked together. Both are Christian and came from Christian roots, but have taken on the music industry in their own way, creating true relationships between themselves and other artists instead of chasing fame. Both love a cinematic feel to their music, so their collaborations are amazing. One example is “Hurricane,” another is “Breathe”. Their cover of Linkin Park’s “In The End” has been streamed nearly 42 MILLION times on YouTube.

Through this connection, Fleurie has made multiple collaborations with artists such as NF, Ruelle, Jung Youth, and Sam Tinnesz.

In January of 2020 Ruelle and Fleurie announced an upcoming European tour. Unfortunately, that was put off due to the pandemic.

In April of 2020, as the pandemic lockdowns hit, Matt Standfield got in touch with Fleurie, and the collaboration “Waterproof” was made. She says of the lyrics that it is “…a song about my lifelong wrestle with perfectionism and the longing for self-acceptance.”

In July 2020 she returned to Dark Horse Studios to record “Love Has No Limits” by Stabal. The ethereal beauty in the sound of this song cannot be understated.

https://youtu.be/fJGPURjINzg

Fleurie – Love Has No Limits | Live at Dark Horse Recording Studios (https://youtu.be/fJGPURjINzg)

On November 12, 2020, “Hurricane” was used as the theme song for the trailer of “Black Beauty” by Disney+.

She and Sam Tinnesz released a single “No Sanctuary” which may be part of a complete project listed as UNSECRET…