You would think after 18 years of
American Idol, we, and the viewing public in general, might have become accustomed to teens who can sing their butts off. Apparently not. The judges clearly still aren't used to it either because 16-year-old Lauren Spencer-Smith left all three of them fumbling for words with her cover of P!nk's "What About Us." Come on, girl, you weren't even
born when the show started!Lauren is a high school student from Vancouver Island and not only is she sweet and cute as heck, honey, she can siiing. Her audition in Oregon aired on Sunday night's episode and her powerhouse of a performance left Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie trying to put together coherent feedback while Katy Perry just didn't even bother.
"We're under full attack—the 15-, 16-year-olds are coming strong this trip," Lionel said. "You are wise and gifted well beyond your age... as much as I want to critique, I just think you did a great job, honest to goodness... I really love what you just did.""I think your voice is SUPER interesting," Luke chimed in. "You have this tone that is making us very intrigued by you." Katy added that while Lauren may be 16, her voice is 1,000 years old (but like, in a good way) and all three voted "yes" to send our hometown girl to Hollywood Week.Lauren may be new to international television, but her talent isn't new to Canada. The Nanaimo, B.C. teen's 2019
Unplugged Vol. 1 album is nominated for a
Juno Award in the Adult Contemporary Album of the Year category. The album consists mostly of live covers, including her audition song and Lady Gaga's "Always Remember Us This Way" which she also sang in her audition (though it didn't make it to air).[video_embed id='1869637']RELATED: Jann Arden won her first Juno while sitting in front of Céline Dion[/video_embed]The Gaga song also happens to be the tune that earned Lauren a bit of viral buzz after she shared a
cell phone video of her singing it in the car with her dad last year. The song blew up so much, she even had
an appearance on Steve Harvey's daytime talk show where she talked about winning a competition to
perform with Keith Urban when she was 11 and said she's been singing pretty much since she could speak. You know what? We believe it.We'll see Lauren next on the first Hollywood Week episode airing March 16.Watch
American Idol Sundays at 8/9MT on CTV.[video_embed id='1913639']BEFORE YOU GO: North West wows with rap skills during Kanye’s PFW show[/video_embed]
