Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Lauren Spencer Smith has enjoyed great success with her original music post-American Idol. (ABC Photo)

She’s performed at the MTV Video Music Awards and The People’s Choice Awards.

And she’s performed sold-out shows around the world.

But the former American Idol contestant has never performed on the Idol stage.

That will change Sunday night when she’s the guest performer on the American Idol Top 20 show.

Lauren, from Vancouver Island, Canada, was 16 when she had the fortune of dazzling the Idol judges during the Season 18 blind auditions.

But she had the misfortune of competing on Idol in 2020, the year of the pandemic.

She made the Top 20 before the show went on hiatus while producers tried to figure out how to proceed.

When the competition resumed, singers were performing from their homes — not the Idol stage — and the remainder of the season was cut down to just four weeks.

Lauren was one of the singers eliminated when the show cut the Top 20 to a Top 11 in one night.

At the time, she was mostly a cover singer, a young artist who was just starting to work on original music.

That’s certainly changed.

The song she’ll perform on Idol is “Fingers Crossed,” a song that went viral on TikTok, hit the Top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 and has been streamed more than 400 million times on Spotify alone. You read that right, more than 400 million.

Her follow-up single “Flowers,” also released in 2022, has been streamed more than 250 million times on Spotify and her celebrated debut album, “Mirror,” landed last summer.

Still just 20, Lauren was nominated for three Juno (Canadian music) Awards this year, including Artist of the Year and Album of the Year.

At the end of her Idol run back in 2020, Lauren told Idol Chatter she was thrilled with the experience, truncated as it was.

“I was going into this experience to gain a fan base, a fun experience and to learn a lot about myself, the music industry, and my artistry/vocal ability. All of those things I accomplished and I’m super happy with my amazing experience on Idol!” she said.

Lauren Spencer Smith performing from her home on American Idol in 2020. (ABC Photo)