New Song From Peg Luke Offers Raw Grace in “Smiling Through The Pain”

Peg Luke ’s latest release, “Smiling Through The Pain,” doesn’t sound like a typical faith-based ballad—it doesn’t try to. There’s no bombast, no crescendo of redemption, no grand payoff. Instead, what she delivers is far more disarming: a soft and haunting confession from the center of her own suffering.

The Emmy and Grammy-nominated artist, known for her classical training and sacred music catalog, takes a quieter turn here. Stripped down and emotionally present, “Smiling Through The Pain” lands as a contemporary psalm—one that doesn’t pretend pain is fleeting or suffering makes sense. Luke’s voice doesn’t rise to prove strength; it sits gently in the ache.

Diagnosed with a debilitating autoimmune illness and largely homebound since the pandemic, Peg Luke has been writing from a place of deep personal reckoning. But the song expands beyond her own trials. In her own words, the song “became bigger,” taking on the weight of a global moment fraught with uncertainty and exhaustion. That broader resonance is what gives the track its reach—this is music that meets people where they are, whether they’re grieving in silence or still showing up with broken pieces.

The production is restrained, allowing each lyric to land without interruption. There’s something brave about how Luke delivers a line like “I’m smiling, I don’t really know why”—it’s the kind of sentence that doesn’t need to be explained to those who’ve lived it. And when she closes the track with “God will be with us,” the phrase doesn’t feel like a bow tied on suffering. It feels like a lifeline being quietly passed from one outstretched hand to another.

In an industry where emotional honesty can often feel stage-managed, “Smiling Through The Pain” resonates because it doesn’t reach for applause. Peg Luke doesn’t need a choir of backing vocals or soaring strings to say something real. She already has.