Julliana Grantz is possibly the most talented Catholic artist you’ve never heard about. Her relative obscurity is not due to a bad contract or that her music didn’t perform as well as a label might have expected, but rather that she has only just begun to tread the path of a musical vocation. After all, she is still in high school.
St. Gianna
Regardless of her youth, at just 17 years old Juliana has achieved musical feats that some pro-artists still dream about. In 2022, the Archdiocese of Milan bonded around “Gianna’s Song,” which Grantz wrote to honor St. Gianna when she was just 14 years old. Aleteia previously wrote about how the song came to the attention of St. Gianna’s daughter, who loved it so much she spread it around. Now this unassuming teenage Catholic singer has a fan-base in Italy, who used her song for the centennial celebration of St. Gianna’s birth.
We did, however, say “musical feats” – plural – and many more of this fledgling artist’s feats are found in her melodies. She just writes good music that makes her audience contemplate the deeper meaning behind each tune. Her songs explore themes of peace, hope, and joy, but they also go beyond simple exploration to disseminate the feelings that go along with the themes through emotional and exceptional music.
"Magnify"
On December 29, 2022, Juliana released her final single of the year, “Magnify,” featured above. We agree with every artistic decision Grantz made in this tune. The slow chordal piano opening of the song yields to a beautiful section of arpeggios in which she doubles the piano on a harp just to pluck at the heartstrings. Meanwhile, Grantz captivates with a beautiful lilting melody that shows off her light, flexible voice that effortlessly twiddles through melismatic high notes.
The lyrics speak of the safety that faith can provide, especially in times when the light seems especially dim. In her gratitude for the peace and freedom found in her faith, she proclaims her desire to magnify Christ to become the center of the faithful’s attention. The song achieves this on its own as it now stands as a worthy addition to the Catholic songbook, which exists to glorify God.
It’s not a perfect recording -- for example, background noise of young children’s laughter can be heard about halfway through. This, however, actually makes the song even more charming, as it calls attention to the independent nature of this release. It brings to mind images of a young artist recording by herself in her family home, with no expectations of fame or commercial success. Grantz makes music purely because she feels called to use her God-given gifts to contribute to her faith, and the beauty of that sentiment is enough to bring us to appreciative tears.
Faith
In her description of the song, Juliana explained that she actually wrote “Magnify” after attending a Catholic summer youth camp in 2021. Comments from fans note that she’s teased the song with clips for a while, but they seem thrilled to finally have the full version. Of the song, Juliana explained:
“'Magnify' is about that ardent desire to let our every action make Jesus magnified ... that when people look at us, they can see Him in us.”
In our humble opinion, the sky's the limit for this phenomenal Catholic act. We fully expect that Juliana has a monumental musical career ahead of her, if she so chooses. There’s no telling where she might go with it, or what her plans are after high school, but for now we are simply grateful that the songs that she has released thus far are available to listen to on just about every streaming platform one could think of.
Juliana Grantz currently has a modest following of 364 on YouTube. So now is the best time to get in on the ground floor and count yourself among her fans. Visit Grantz’s official website to learn more about this extremely talented budding Catholic artist.
