Carly Ann Taylor had spent much of her life singing. But in a new video sharing her story, the Christian soul-pop artist says music could no longer carry everything she was facing. Then came a call from an older brother she barely knew.
Taylor says she grew up in Hawaii amid addiction and abuse in her family and was taken into the care of child protective services at seven. Singing gave her a place to express feelings she struggled to put into words. By her teens, however, she says she felt increasingly hopeless. What could change for a young woman who had learned to survive but could no longer see a way forward?
The answer began during a break from her job at Baskin-Robbins. Her brother Randy, who is 16 years older and lived in San Diego, called and invited her to visit his family in California. Taylor says they had met only a few times. She accepted, unaware that the trip would become a permanent turning point.
Taylor recalls crying when she first entered the bedroom where she would stay because she finally felt safe. She contrasts it with the makeshift structure where she says she had been living in Hawaii, with rain coming through and mold affecting her bed and clothes. After hearing what she had been going through, her brother and sister-in-law told her she did not have to return. They would take her in and finish raising her.
That decision changed more than her address. Taylor says she came to call the couple her mom and dad, and they brought her to church, where she first heard the gospel and chose to follow Jesus at 15. She is careful, though, not to present what followed as an instant cure. Joining a new household meant leaving friends behind, learning new boundaries and working through difficult conversations alongside moments of joy and restoration.
Music took on a new purpose as well. Taylor says she began leading worship within months of becoming a Christian. After years of singing in restaurants and bars, she found herself asking what her voice could offer people who felt as alone as she once had. Her hope now, she says, is that listeners will recognize something of their own stories in her songs.
The video, titled Something Good Is Coming: Carly Ann Taylor's Story from Rejection to Redemption, leaves a question hanging beyond its hopeful title: How does someone rebuild a sense of belonging after years of feeling unwanted? Taylor's answer begins with the family that opened its door to her-and continues in the faith and music she is sharing today.
