Hardships inspire ‘Idol’ finalist’s songwriting
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Six years after being a finalist on “American Idol,” country singer Lauren Alaina is finally feeling happy and healthy and celebrating hard-earned radio success.
She needed only to be honest with her fans and herself.
The bubbly singer with an impressive vocal range was a fan favorite on the reality TV show, finishing second in 2011 behind country singer Scotty McCreery. Privately, though, she was a teenager whose struggle with bodyimage issues escalated after she landed in the public eye.
In middle school, she began noticing differences between her body shape and those of other girls after she joined the cheerleading team.
“I was taller and had an athletic build,” said Alaina, now 22, “where those girls were gymnasts and they were lean.”
Although “Idol” brought her legions of fans nationally, she couldn’t avoid the negative, trolling comments.
“I would see these people calling me fat and calling me horrible names,” said Alaina, who is from Georgia. “And this one page called me ‘Miss Piggy,’ and they only referred to me as ‘Miss Piggy.’ I was a 16-year-old girl. I did not know how to deal with that, and I was already insecure about my weight.”
Soon after her season on “Idol,” Alaina released her debut album, “Wildflower.” The songs weren’t hers, though, and her label couldn’t make the singles stick on country radio.
“I was really fearful that I was going to lose my record deal,” she said.
Her personal life, meanwhile, was compounding her stress. Her father went into rehab for alcohol addiction, and her parents divorced.
Her eating disorder got so bad that it started affecting her vocal cords. Her mother enlisted the help of a doctor to stage an intervention, compelling her to confront the truth and get professional help.
“I thought I had it all wrapped up and nobody knew,” Alaina said. “I was so sick, like my hair was falling out.”
Through it all, the singer had one song in her back pocket that she hoped would change her career: “Road Less Traveled,” which she had co-written in 2013 with Jesse Frasure and Meghan Trainor before Trainor’s “All About That Bass” launched Trainor’s pop career.
Four years later, the song hit No. 1 on Billboard’s country airplay chart ( which tracks radio airplay). “Road Less Traveled” — also the name of her sophomore album, released in January — is a crafty blend of Alaina’s powerful vocals, Frasure’s beats and lyrics that speak volumes about being an individual and not letting criticism tear you down.
“Road Less Traveled” spent 34 weeks on the chart before becoming Alaina’s first No. 1.
At the CMT Music Awards on Wednesday night in Nashville, the song’s music video won breakthroughvideoof- the- year honors.
The album is chock- full of honest but uplifting truths — from “Same Day Different Bottle,” about her father’s alcoholism, to the next single, “Doin’ Fine,” which begins: “Daddy got sober/ momma got his best friend.”
“I took some of the hardest things about my life and wrote an empowering song with it,” Alaina said. “It has made me want to always write from that place.”