The soulful voice of Austin-based R&B, soul and pop singer-songwriter Lauren Silva leads listeners to wonder how someone so young can sing of life so authentically. But with a career that began with singing, dancing, and acting at the age of five and now includes touring nation-wide and writing and producing her own music and videos, she has a lifetime of experience. And still there's something more behind the perfect pitch tone she passionately belts out. In the midst of a successful childhood career that included dancing, acting, singing and modeling, the tragic death and finding of her best friend and cast mate led her to years of challenges with substance issues and gang influence. Extracting herself by sheer inner strength and her spiritual practices along with carrying out the art she shared in loving memory with her best friend, she poured herself into her passion for creating and performing with amazing results. Not content to simply perform and take a bow, Lauren uses her experiences to inspire and mentor youth throughout the country by working with organizations assisting inner city youth, the homeless and human trafficking coalitions. After an initial album with an independent label in her native California at the age of 18, Lauren grew into her own as an R&B, soul and pop artist, most recently expanding into writing and co-writing for herself and other major artists alongside several American and international teams with Sony and Universal. Vocally compared to a mix between pop sensations, Adele, Pink and Alicia Keys, she has been gaining major label, publishing, and music licensing interest with her previous EP, which garnered airplay in Austin, New York and Canada, and recently recorded EP. Lauren has toured nationally performing in venues ranging from sold-out shows at the Cox Arena to renowned Austin venues such as Antone's, the Saxon Pub and Threadgill's opening for five-time Grammy-nominated artist Marcia Ball. She has opened for established recording artists such as P.O.D., Kirk Franklin, L.F.O., and has worked with a growing number of well-respected musicians such as Lester Abrams (writer of “Minute By Minute” of Doobie Brothers), Traa (Bass player for P.O.D.) Tomi Aros (Luis Miguel, Santana), Kiko Cibrian (Santana), Carl Evans J.R. (Fattburger, Stevie Wonder) and more. Though her journey began in Southern California, Lauren's Portuguese heritage led her to Hawaii where, in addition to continuing to write and perform music, she also did missionary work. While there, she collaborated with the Grammy award-winning Carrie Underwood and can be seen singing next to Underwood in the opening scene of the major motion film “Soul Surfer.” In 2012 her original single “Hurt,” was nominated for Best Pop Song in the Hollywood Music in Media Awards where she performed to great reviews. “Hurt” was placed on TV’s Oxygen Network amongst rotating network shows and earned her first radio play in New York, Canada and charting on local radio in Austin, Texas, claiming the number one spot on R&B/Soul station KAZI for over six weeks in a row. In addition, she has had 2 more songs on KAZI that claimed the number one spot for many weeks in a row along. She also recently just won with her original song "Shadow" for Best R&B/Soul Song of the Year for the 2013 Hollywood Music in Media Awards and also receiving an honorable mention in the USA Songwriting Competition and in top 100 of hottest unsigned artists in Los Angeles' music connection chart Currently Lauren has been back in the studio writing and working with various producers (Rhianna, One Direction, Rita Orta) working on songs to pitch She is also working with an Los Angeles-based film director, writing for a major film. She is also planning to release her 5th EP/Album project sometime this year.