I’ve been watching every season of American Idol since Kelly Clarkson took home the title 10 years ago. When I first saw Lauren Alaina sing during auditions – I knew this girl was going to be a star. To top things off – she happens to be ‘the pride of Rossville, Georgia’ (part of the Greater Chattanooga, TN & GA area) so when hometown visits were announced – you bet I voted my fingers off to make sure I’d get a chance to see her!!
Lauren’s first stop during her busy day was at an AT&T store at 8:45 in the morning. On our way there, we saw a giant limo in front of the ClearChannel, Chattanooga studios. There were at least four cops on motorcycles, and trust me – in this small city, that’s a rare sight! We drove by a few times, hoping that Lauren would come out… but we didn’t want to get ticketed, so we left to get a good spot at AT&T.
There were only around 150 people out that early in the morning, and AT&T was passing out American Idol swag and posters for people to hold (complete with big AT&T balls on them). The store had music blaring, and was asking the crowd trivia questions and giving away swag. No one could miss Lauren’s super-sized limo and huge motorcade, and the crowd went wild!! When Lauren finally came out one of her ‘superfans‘ presented her with a new phone – courtesy of AT&T. On the phone was a text message from the judges, and it said that their song choice for her this week is ‘I Hope You Dance,’ by LeeAnn Womack. Lauren then spent some time signing autographs for a few people near the front, then had to go. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a chance to get a picture with her but hey – there were a lot of people crowding the area.
After Lauren left we headed off to Coolidge Park in downtown Chattanooga, to stake out a good spot for her concert. She was scheduled to go on after a parade at noon, and we got there at 9:30. There were already hundreds of people staking out areas with lawn chairs and blankets, so we just tried to kill as much time as we could before she was scheduled to go on. By the time noon rolled around, Lauren was nowhere in sight!!! The crowd was definitely getting restless, and we decided to head up to the parade route because we couldn’t get a spot near the front of the stage anyways. An hour later, we found out she was running late because she was spending time visiting disaster stricken areas from last month’s devastating tornadoes.
Lauren finally rode down in a bright red convertible almost two hours late. Her family members were riding other Ford cars (isn’t American Idol a glorified Ford commercial anyways?!) right behind her. The whole time she was talking to an American Idol camera right in front of her – saying how happy she was and how she couldn’t believe it! She looked like she was going to burst into tears the whole time, and had this huge smile on her face. Everyone was screaming “Lauren!! Lauren!! Lauren!!” at the top of their lungs. Luckily, there weren’t as many people along her parade route so I got some pretty decent pictures & video of her.
By the time Lauren got on stage, I don’t think anyone except select people in the front could see her because there were 10,000 people in the park and the ground is pretty flat. Also a lot of parents had their kids on their shoulders, and their kids would be holding giant signs. It was like trying to see past a 10 foot person!
The mayor of Rossville and Chattanooga both presented her with ‘keys to the city,’ and some 15-year-old girl from New York gave her a big painting of one of her head-shots. Lauren looked so incredibly happy the whole time, and her energy was contagious. You couldn’t help but fall in love with her! She brought the house down withCarrie Underwood’s ‘Flat On The Floor,’ and let me tell you – her voice is even more incredible in person than what we hear on TV! Lauren almost broke down into tears talking about the devastation that she witnessed, and then sang Martina McBride’s Anyway. She dedicated the song to people affected by the storms. Lauren was accompanied by her voice teachers band – ‘The Tyler Perry Band.’ Before both songs the band actually started playing the wrongsong… I wish I could’ve gotten pictures or videos, but Lauren was impossible to see.
After her concert, Lauren was scheduled to have another parade, visit her old high school, and throw the opening pitch for a local minor league baseball game. I was a little too tired to do any of that after sitting around all day, and I can’t imagine how tired Lauren must’ve been! I’m definitely glad I got to have my mini American Idol experience, and it was worth it to see Lauren Alaina living out her dream. I know it’s even more special to this community, because Chattanooga doesn’t get a lot of national exposure and I think it’s a city that deserves it’s place on the map. The whole experience brought true reality to ‘reality TV,’ and I truly hope that Lauren Alaina maintains her big heart and personality because I know this girl is going to become a star!
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