Lauren Alaina broke down in tears after hearing American Idol contestant Hannah Harper’s audition song, “String Cheese,” inspired by Harper’s journey through motherhood and struggles with postpartum depression.
The country superstar and American Idol Season 10 finalist took to social media to share her raw reaction with fans after listening to the song for the first time while holding her newborn daughter, Beni Doll Arnold, on her lap.
She captioned the clip, “8 months postpartum, hearing this song for the first time has me in a puddle. Hannah Harper, thank you for writing this song for us mommas. I can’t wait to watch your journey. I’m rooting for you every step of the way. 🤍”
The video, soundtracked by “String Cheese,” showed Alaina visibly overcome with emotion, tears streaming down her cheeks as she told the person behind the camera to stop filming while embracing her 8-month-old daughter. “Actual footage of me hearing ‘String Cheese’ for the first time while holding my string cheese,” Alaina wrote in an overlay on the clip, referencing her daughter.
Lauren Alaina’s reaction video came just a few days after Hannah Harper brought Carrie Underwood to tears with the relatable track during her American Idol audition. Alaina welcomed her first child with husband Cam Arnold in June of 2025, and since then her mom, Kristy Suddeth, has been by her side helping her through postpartum.
Hannah Harper, a stay-at-home mother of three young boys, grew up in a very unconventional musical family, singing bluegrass and Christian music on the road, traveling coast to coast from 2009 to 2016. She met and married her husband, Devon, in 2016, and a few months later they discovered they were expecting their first child. Hannah and Devon quickly grew their family and now have three young boys.
She was motivated to audition for American Idol in honor of her three children. “Then one turned to three really fast. With three boys comes a lot of chaos and a lot of fun. It’s just hectic at all times,” she previously explained. “I’m trying out for the show just because I want the opportunity to give the boys the same life that I had growing up in a bigger way, if possible, to be able to sustain my family and do music full time.”
“String Cheese,” solely written by Hannah Harper, whose real name is Hannah Noelle Mendenhall, was inspired by her struggles with overcoming postpartum depression. She channeled those emotions into song lyrics one day while she was “sitting on my couch wallowing.” She explained that in the moment that she wrote this song, “My youngest son kept coming up to me saying, ‘Mom, open this. Open my cheese.’ When I finally did, I realized God had put me there and that being a mom was the biggest ministry I could have. I got up, quit throwing a pity party, and kicked postpartum depression in the butt, and I said, I ain’t doing it.”
Following her Idol audition, “String Cheese” took on a new life on social media, with many mothers sharing their stories using the song as the soundtrack to their posts. It also quickly climbed Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart, debuting at No. 14 with over 1,000 units sold. The song also ranked above “Baby Shark” by Pinkfong on the Children’s Music iTunes chart.
“STRING CHEESE is #14 on the Country Music charts. 😭🤍 I truly don’t have words. Thank y’all for listening, sharing, and loving this song so big,” Harper wrote on social media after hearing the news of the song’s newfound success.
Listen to Hannah Harper’s “String Cheese” HERE.
