“I knew Scotty was going to win. At the beginning of the episode, I was like, 'Scotty, are you ready to win?'. I knew he was going to in my heart. I accepted it. I couldn't pick a more perfect person to get second place to. He's my best friend.”

American singer and songwriter, born 1994

Lauren Alaina is an American singer and songwriter from Rossville, Georgia. Born Lauren Alaina Kristine Suddeth, she came to wider attention as the runner-up on the tenth season of American Idol, where she finished second to Scotty McCreery. She released her debut album, Wildflower, in 2011, followed by Road Less Traveled in 2017. That album’s title track gave her her first number one on the Country Airplay chart, and later in 2017 she reached another high point with Kane Brown on the diamond-certified duet "What Ifs." In the years that followed, she also appeared on chart-topping collaborations with Hardy, Devin Dawson, and Dustin Lynch. Her third studio album, Sitting Pretty on Top of the World, arrived in 2021.