The Editor’s List, August 2008
Francesca Battistelli
A Christian pop singer from New York whose first album for a label was released in July 2008. Within weeks Cove had a song from it in the top three of its Christian list.
The Cove archive desk · Compiled October 2026
At a glance
| Act | Solo artist |
|---|---|
| Origin | New York, United States |
| Releases on MusicBrainz | 17 release groups, 2004–2026 |
| Earliest dated release listed | Just a Breath (2004, album) |
| Label on that release | Redemption Records |
| In Cove’s archive | The Editor’s List, August 2008 |
Cove’s pick
“Forever Love” is No. 3 on the Christian chart of the August 2008 Editor’s List, credited to My Paper Heart, and MusicBrainz lists it on that album. Two Christian rock acts sat above it: Third Day’s “Ready” and Above the Golden State’s “Loud and Clear”. Below it came 21:03 and, further down, pureNRG. The magazine printed a placement and no review, under the standing note: Songs are rated by the Editors of Cove Magazine. This list is by no means world wide, since albums selected are normally released only in North America.
The records
| First released | Title | Type | Label on first release |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2004-08-27 | Just a Breath | Album | Redemption Records |
| 2008-07-15 | My Paper Heart | Album | Curb Records, Fervent Records |
| 2010-03-02 | My Paper Heart: Dented Fender Sessions | EP | Fervent Records, Word |
| 2011-03-01 | Hundred More Years | Album | Word Entertainment |
| 2012-10-16 | Christmas | Album | Curb | Word |
| 2013-09-24 | Christmas Live in Nashville | Album (live) | Fervent Records |
| 2014-04-22 | If We’re Honest | Album | Curb Records, Fervent Records |
| 2017-11-03 | Greatest Hits: The First Ten Years | Album (compilation) | Fervent Records |
| 2018-10-26 | Own It | Album | Curb | Word |
| 2020-10-23 | This Christmas | Album | Curb | Word Entertainment |
The table shows albums and EPs. The singles, of which MusicBrainz lists several, are omitted for length. The release date of My Paper Heart differs between sources: MusicBrainz says 15 July 2008, Wikipedia 22 July. Both put it a few weeks before the August list. The earliest release of it carries Curb Records and Fervent Records.
Before and after
Just a Breath (2004, Redemption Records) is the first entry in MusicBrainz. Wikipedia calls it an independent album made before the label deal. After My Paper Heart, the record is steady: Hundred More Years (2011), a Christmas album (2012) and a live Christmas recording (2013), If We’re Honest (2014), a greatest-hits set in 2017 and Own It (2018). The latest album in the table is This Christmas (2020), and MusicBrainz lists singles as recently as August 2026.
Wikipedia records two Grammy milestones. The first nomination came in 2009, for Best Gospel Performance, and the first win in 2016, for Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song with “Holy Spirit”, from If We’re Honest. Radio and chart figures are reported there too. We do not repeat them, because this page cites no chart source.
Context
Of the acts on Cove’s Christian list, she is a clear case of the list picking someone at the start of a long career. pureNRG, two places from the bottom of the same list, was on Fervent too, according to Wikipedia’s article on that group, and the labels on both acts’ MusicBrainz releases overlap.
My Paper Heart, track by track
“Forever Love” is track 7. Wikipedia names “I’m Letting Go”, track 2, as the first single, and her 2009 Grammy nomination was for “Free to Be Me”, track 1.
| # | Track | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Free to Be Me | 3:28 |
| 2 | I’m Letting Go | 2:53 |
| 3 | Unpredictable | 2:58 |
| 4 | My Paper Heart | 3:27 |
| 5 | Beautiful, Beautiful | 3:16 |
| 6 | Blue Sky | 3:55 |
| 7 | Forever Love | 3:52 |
| 8 | Someday Soon | 3:49 |
| 9 | Behind the Scenes | 4:09 |
| 10 | It’s Your Life | 2:51 |
| 11 | Time in Between | 3:24 |
Discography data: MusicBrainz (CC0), checked 26 October 2026. Dates are first-release dates as MusicBrainz records them; a release it does not list is not shown here. Background not held by MusicBrainz was confirmed against Wikipedia, checked 26 October 2026.
Also in Cove’s archive: Taylor Eigsti · Above the Golden State · all the new artists in Cove’s archive · the archive home page