Lauren Spencer Smith's path to stardom is emblematic of how the music industry works today
The Canadian singer-songwriter has had a crazy few years leading up to the release of her debut album
Lauren Spencer Smith may only be 19, but her pragmatic approach to the music business is far beyond her years.
"Both of my parents taught me to be very business-oriented my entire life," she tells Q's Tom Power in an interview. "They were very realistic about, 'Hey, if you want to go into this industry, here's what it's like, watch this documentary. A huge famous artist got all their money stolen from them by their manager.'
"I've been prepared, being like, 'I'm going to check my bank statements weekly to make sure this never happens to me!' I've watched every traumatizing video that every artist has spoken about in the industry to make sure it does not happen to me."
Paired with her incredible voice, the Canadian singer-songwriter's shrewd approach to the music industry is what took her from singing in her bedroom on Vancouver Island to releasing her highly anticipated debut album, Mirror, which drops July 14.
It's a nerve-racking time for Spencer Smith who says she's getting in her head about the record's release.
"I'm very, very number-driven," she tells Power with a slight laugh. "So if it doesn't do how well I want it to do, it will send me into a spiral. I feel like everyone who does social media, the numbers get to us deeply."
Spencer Smith got her start four years ago when she posted a video on Facebook of herself singing a cover of Lady Gaga's Always Remember Us This Way in her dad's truck. She didn't look at the video again until the next day, when her mom told her it had 10 million views.
"I feel like that was the starting point of me really starting to do music," she says. "I had a bit of a following, I could do live streams and make money from it, instead of having to be a server at a restaurant. And it definitely opened up my opportunities and people that were reaching out to me. I had more contacts. I was still 15, so I couldn't just fly out to L.A. by myself and go write songs and become an artist, but it definitely was the gateway to me meeting new people and having other opportunities."
That viral video also helped Spencer Smith get her first big break on American Idol, where she auditioned for Katy Perry, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan.
"The whole audition was actually a blur to me," she says. "I remembered them not being nice to me — not like not nice to me — but I was like, 'No, they didn't say that nice of things, I think they just put me through.' And then months later when I watched it on TV, I was like, 'They said that to me? What?' Like, I just blacked out, I think."
While Spencer Smith was eliminated from the competition in the Top 20 round, she wasn't devastated by the loss. In fact, she says that's what she wanted from the start.
"This is going to sound so crazy, but I never went on the show to win anyway," she says. "I knew that if I won, I was going to be put in a contract that I didn't want to be in. So my whole goal of going on the show, honestly, was kind of exactly how it turned out….
"When I got kicked off, I just knew in that moment, everything happens for a reason. You weren't meant to win. You gained a following, you got to meet all these cool, amazing people on the show, and contacts, and songwriters. I'm so grateful I did not win that show. It could not have turned out better for me."
After building connections and an audience on American Idol, Spencer Smith became more known internationally with her first self-released hit, Fingers Crossed, which blew up on TikTok.
"When I started teasing that song, TikTok was in a peak of loving when artists would tease original music," she says of her success on the social media app. "COVID was still happening … [and] everyone on the internet seemed to be going through a breakup or something tragic…. If I teased Fingers Crossed right now, I don't think it would do what it did back then. I think it was a perfect timing moment."
WATCH | Lauren Spencer Smith's full interview with Tom Power:
The full interview with Lauren Spencer Smith is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Interview with Lauren Spencer Smith produced by Vanessa Nigro.
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