Fast-rising 18-year-old Canadian singer-songwriter Lauren Spencer-Smith has inked with both Warner Chappell Music publishing and longtime Shawn Mendes manager Andrew Gertler’s AG Artists in partnership with Ziggy Chareton, PvNew has /confirm/ied. The news was first published in Hits.
A native of Vancouver Island, the singer’s confessional, intimate songs like “Fingers Crossed” and her latest single “Flowers” have effectively set her on a track to be this year’s Olivia Rodrigo. She taught herself piano and guitar in her early teens and began posting videos of herself performing covers on social media. Her version of Lady Gaga’s “Always Remember Us This Way” from“A Star Is Born” — which she sang in her father’s truck —blew up on Facebook, leading to an invitation from “American Idol” for its 2020 season.
After working with several professional producers and songwriters, she launched a TikTok page and began airing songs such as “For Granted and “Back to Friends” alongside covers (including Olivia Rodrigo’s “All I Want”), and caught fire with “Fingers Crossed,” which has logged half-a-billion views on the platform. After an intense bidding war, she signed with Island-Republic earlier this year via her imprint Three Name Productions, and during the Spring parted ways with former manager David Ehrlich. Gertler and Chareton, who have steered Mendes’ career since Gertler stumbled on a video of the then-14-year-old performing a Justin Bieber song on YouTube, have joined forces to manage Spencer-Smith as well.
The singer is at work on her debut full-length. Last month, she performed “Fingers Crossed” at Canada’s Juno Awards, and she’s playing a high-profile concert at New York’s Bowery Ballroom tonight.
