Laine Hardy Returns to ‘American Idol,’ Performs ‘Life Is a Highway’
Mothers' Day 2020 (May 10) on American Idol was split down the middle in terms of two directions: The top 7 contestants (revealed that evening) were expected to both sing a song to honor their mothers, as well as hold up to the show's time-honored "Disney Night" and perform something from that well-revered catalog.
In a fun touch, as the hopefuls belted out numbers plucked from The Lion King to Beauty and the Beast, currently reigning Idol Laine Hardy showed up to do his own Disney turn. Fans of the Louisiana-bred singer will recall that he threw an entrancingly swampy, thoroughly unexpected swagger onto the little-known "Oo-De-Lally" from the equally overlooked Robin Hood for his own Disney night last April.
This time, he chose a much better-loved song in the repertoire, but it had all of the muscle of his previous, arcane Disney choice. Hardy put a rollicking spin on Cars' already ramblin' and rollin' "Life Is a Highway," made famous first by Tom Cochrane in the '90s and again by Rascal Flatts for the proper Disney soundtrack.
Contestant Dillon James had literally just done the more melancholy "Our Town" from the same movie, so it was a little bit of an uneven pacing to have two songs from the same flick so close together. But it's hard to deny that Hardy's upbeat version (performed, of course, at home) added a dimension that had viewers rocking out in a way we all need these days.
The Season 18 finale is slated for May 17, and all contestants' performances will again be coming from home, so tuck yourselves in for a little more stay-in-place action and see who makes it through to the very end.
Watch: Laine Hardy Reveals Something Stunning About Winning Idol
See the Top 20 Finalists on American Idol, Season 18:
American Idol Stars, Then and Now: Carrie Looks So Different!