Janet Paschal


Janet Paschal is an inspirational gospel vocalist. She has released numerous albums in that genre and has received multiple fan awards and Grammy and Dove Award nominations. She is also a songwriter and published author. In May 2019, she was inducted into the Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee.

Personal life

Paschal was born in Reidsville, North Carolina. Paschal grew up in a Christian, musically inclined family with her father and his brothers playing bluegrass instruments and singing in area churches as the Paschal Brothers. Paschal's grandfather was a minister who served as an inspiration in her life as she attended his church growing up. As a teenager she, her sister, Kay, and a cousin formed their own gospel singing group called The Gospel Classics. Paschal started her professional career as a vocalist after graduating high school.
In 1998, Paschal met John Lanier, a commercial airline pilot. They married in 1999 in Reidsville, North Carolina.
Paschal was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005 and took a year hiatus from touring, while undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatments at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina.
In 2017, Paschal earned a master's degree with honors in Accounting from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, as well as induction into the Beta Gamma Sigma international honor society for collegiate schools of business.

Career

At eighteen years old, Paschal was hired for her first professional singing job as the featured soprano with The LeFevres, an Atlanta-based family singing group. After two years, the group changed its name to The Rex Nelon Singers. She sang with the group from 1974 to 1981.
In 1982, she was invited to perform as a soloist for televangelist Jimmy Swaggart's international crusades. During her five and a half years with Swaggart, Paschal appeared weekly before 100 million viewers and traveled the world singing at crusades. During this time, she performed for more people worldwide than any other female vocalist in any genre. Paschal also began her solo career, releasing her first album titled "I Give You Jesus" on Swaggart's ministry label, Shiloh Records, in 1984.
In 1987, Paschal began touring full-time as a soloist. She signed with Word Records and began composing songs such as Another Soldier's Coming Home, God Will Make A Way, The Body and Blood, and If I'd Had My Way. Shortly afterwards she was invited to tour with Bill and Gloria Gaither and she became a featured artist on the Gaither Homecoming Tour.
Paschal's self-titled debut album with Word was nominated for a Dove Award for "Inspirational Album of the Year" in 1990. Her Simple Trust album featured her No. 1 inspirational radio hit, Take These Burdens. Her single, Hide Me Sweet Rock of Ages, was No. 1 on The Singing News Top 80 Chart in August 2009, the only full-time female soloist at the time to have a No. 1 song on that chart. Paschal's passion and vulnerability are evident in her inspiring music, including her latest release, Beginnings. She has earned multiple Diamond Awards and numerous Grammy nominations, and she is consistently named among Gospel Music's favorite soloists by the genre's top trade magazines.
In 1998, Paschal performed her song, Another Soldier's Coming Home, written as a tribute to her grandfather, upon invitation for the National Memorial Service of First Lieutenant Michael Blassie, the first unknown soldier from the Vietnam War to be exhumed and positively identified.
In 2009, Paschal started a radio program focused on cancer awareness, Walking The Good Road, that aired on more than 30 stations in the U.S. and Canada. She also began the Annual Cancer Walk at Gospel Music's premier weeklong festival, NQC.
In May 2019, Paschal was inducted into the Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee. It is the association's highest award that recognizes trailblazers that have made a profound impact on Christian & gospel music.

Other work

Paschal served as the spokeswoman for an international Christian relief organization, "Mission of Mercy," founded by missionaries Mark and Huldah Buntain.
Paschal has authored two books:
Paschal was a contributing writer to Homecoming Magazine with a monthly article called "The Good Road."

Discography

Solo