Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Laine Hardy returned for American Idol Season 17.

Laine Hardy has gone from unknown country singer to a teenager with more than 100,000 followers on Facebook, more than 85,000 on Instagram and his own merchandise line on his own website.

All of which happened when he advanced to the Top 50 on American Idol during the show’s 16th season.

He’ll try to top that this spring. He’s been announced as one of the artists who auditioned for Season 17.

Here’s more about Laine.

* Since Idol, he released a three-track EP called “In the Bayou.” That’s also the name of his catchy first single, which was also made into a music video (you can check it out below) and a dance video (which you can find on Laine’s YouTube channel).

* Laine wrote that song and “Louisiana Lady” for the debut EP. It also includes a cover of “Hurricane” by Band of Heathens, the song Laine performed for his American Idol audition. That cover has more than 240,000 streams on Spotify.

* If you haven’t guessed, Laine is from Louisiana — Livingston, La., to be precise. He graduated from French Settlement High School in May; there were just 68 students in his graduating class.

* Laine also released “Blue Christmas” as a holiday single and is promising more new original music on his Instagram page. In fact, he posted a snippet of a new song called “Burnin’ Gas” in late January.

* He didn’t write that song, but it clearly fits. In his website bio, Laine says he likes to “drive my truck and burn gas in my spare time.”

* Prior to Idol, Laine was performing around his hometown as part of The Band Hardy, billed as “cousins doing what they do best.” And while his focus is clearly country now, many of the YouTube videos of The Band Hardy were covers of rock and southern rock classics.

On social media:
Instagram
Website
Twitter: @lainehardymusic
Facebook
YouTube

American Idol Season 17 Profiles

 

Alyssa Raghu
Ashley Hess
Dimitrius Graham
Eddie Island
Evelyn Cormier
Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon
Kate Barnette
Laci Kaye Booth
Laine Hardy
Logan Johnson
Madison VanDenburg
Riley Thompson
Ryan Hammond
Uche Ndubizu
Wade Cota
Walker Burroughs