Lauren Alaina Biography

news-detailsLauren Alaina hailed from Rossville, Georgia, born in a strong Christian family on November 8, 1994. Her father, J.J. Suddeth, is a chemical technician in Chattanooga, Tennessee while her mother, Kristy, is a transcriptionist. Since her childhood, Lauren has been surrounded by music because Kristy and Lauren's older brother, Tyler, had been singing, and J.J played multiple instruments.

Her mother said that when Lauren was 3, she hit the notes of Dixie Chicks' "When You Were Mine" perfectly. Kristie then bought a karaoke version of the band's songs and Lauren would sing during breakfast at Lauren's grandmother's restaurant. She began performing locally in such places as her school, church, restaurants and gatherings.

"I would grab up every opportunity I could," Lauren said. "I would go karaoke at any place within a 30-mile radius of where I lived. I would drive an hour just to sing. Any competition I would hear about I would enter." Lauren won Chattanooga's Riverbend Festival, American Model and Talent Competition in Orlando and many others.

Lauren wrote a song called "She's a Miracle" at the age of 9 after her aunt was involved in a car accident. While her childhood went by like any other child's, Lauren's ambition to go bigger in her music career sent her to Nashville at the age of 12. "I would go into the bars on Broadway before 6 p.m. and walk up to the people on the stage and ask if I could sing and they would let me," she said.

At 16, Lauren auditioned for the tenth season of "American Idol" in Nashville, Tennessee and became an early favorite. She particularly impressed judge Steven Tyler for singing Aerosmith's song. Lauren was continually in the safe position during the competition but was placed in the bottom 2 during Top 5. Fortunately, her talent kept pushing away the other contestants until she was beaten by Scotty McCreery in the season finale.

Lauren released her single "Like My Mother Does" following the finale and the song entered the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart at number 49 as well as the Hot 100 chart at number 20. "When they started playing it for me, I started crying because I went through this whole crazy journey and the only person who was there for me every step of the way was my mom," Lauren said about the song. "She didn't get any praises for it and I got all of the attention. I thought the song would be a great way to say thank you for her for all that she does for me. When she came in and heard it, she cried. It was a sign. Everybody was crying, even the piano player."

Lauren made her Grand Ole Opry debut on June 9, 2011 and performed with Martina McBride during her LP Field performance at the CMA Music Festival the following day. She filled her days following "Idols" with tours and recording. Signed under Mercury Nashville Records, Lauren came up with her first album called "Wildflower" on October 11, 2011.

"I feel like this first album is kind of make-it-or-break-it for me, because I just got off national television. So people know who I am, but they don't know who I am as an artist," said Lauren. "I just feel like this album is my way of kind of putting myself out there and showing them exactly who I am." The album sold 69,000 copies in the first week of sale.