Biography

Holly Lamar is an insightful and prolific singer/songwriter who, in just a few short years, achieved what writers hope for their entire careers – a blockbuster #1 song which became an instant classic.  Her first single, “Breathe” was the title cut of Faith Hill’s album and drove the album to multi-platinum sales.  To date, it is Faith’s most successful record.  The single skyrocketed to the top of Billboard’s country charts and remained in the #1 position for 6 weeks, the first time a female country solo performer held that position that long since 1967.  “Breathe” then crossed over to pop radio where it reached #2 on Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart and stayed there for over 10 weeks.  It eventually won Billboard’s Hot 100 Song of the Year award for 2000, having achieved the most radio play of any song for that year.   As a result,  in 2001 Holly was nominated for two grammy’s in the Song of the Year category, one in country and one in pop, both for the song Breathe. 

Holly’s passion for music and words drives her to create the distinctly edgy and heartfelt songs for which she has become known.  Her knack for penning a hit song has made her one of nashville’s most respected and sought-after writers.   Holly had three consecutive #1 hits on the country charts in 2000 with Breathe, 2001 with “That’s The Way” by Jo Dee Messina, and 2002 with “UnBroken” by Tim McGraw.  She had a #12 song on the billboard charts in 2003 with “What The World Needs” by Wynonna Judd.  She has had over 40 cuts since “Breathe” including Lonestar and many others.  For the past several years, she has delved deeper into the pop markets with recent cuts on Jessica Simpson’s last album which she cowrote and coproduced, on such revered artists as Whitney Houston, Amy Grant and Bon Jovi.  She has also written for television and film.  She wrote, sang and coproduced her own album for Universal South records in 2002 and 2003 and had two top 40 country singles from that effort. 

Holly grew up in Cairo, Georgia, a small town in South Georgia, where she attended Brookwood School, excelling in English, and performed with the Thomasville Music & Drama Troupe with Stephanie Bentley, her cowriter on “Breathe”.  She then attended and graduated from Westminster Boarding School in Simsbury, Ct, where she graduated at the top of her class.  She went to Duke University after boarding school and received degrees in Economics and Spanish.  Upon graduation, she moved to New York City and worked as an investment banker at the Wall Street firm of Salomon Brothers.  However, one night she went to see a friend in a play and remembers clearly the moment she realized she had always really wanted to perform and be creative.  She began singing again and tried out for rock bands, writing her first song when one of the bands asked her to write a melody and lyric to a track.  Soon after, in 1995, she moved to Nashville to pursue a career in singing and songwriting.  

She landed a publishing deal within 6 months of being in Nashville purely by convincing the creative director that she was going to “do something”.  Within two years, she had already written “Breathe” with Stephanie.  At first, there was little support for “Breathe” because it was too “edgy” and too pop.  However, Byron and Missi Gallimore and Faith Hill and Tim McGraw got it.  The song was on hold for a year before Faith cut it and it was instantly launched as the premier single for her album.  

Holly’s writing is edgy, emotional and true-to-life.  She has fought against being molded into what everyone has wanted in the past from a country songwriter, structured and simple.  She states, “I wouldn’t change a thing.  The funny thing is, the more I have had to fight for something, the more success I have had at that very thing.”  Her transition to pop, fueled by “Breathe”, has only taught her more to follow her heart.  She believes not in always giving the market what it thinks it wants, but in giving the market something it craves upon hearing it.  She likes to break the rules and break new ground in any endeavors.   She currently travels and writes in Nashville, Los Angeles and New York, as well as abroad.   She is working on new material for an artist album of her own and continuing successfully writing for many artists in both the pop, rock, latin and country markets.  She has recent cuts on artists as wide-ranging as Sara Evans in country and pop Belgian artist, Katrina.

She also teaches Kundalini yoga and meditation, which she knows has further fueled her creativity in the songwriting and singing arena.