Born on September 12, 2000, Laine Hardy grew up in Livingston, Louisiana. As a young child, he took an interest in music at a very young age when he began playing guitar and taking lessons from Jody Mayeux in nearby Walker, Louisiana.

In 2018, Laine graduated from the French Settlement High School in Livingston. Then 2019 happened. This year has seen the 18 year old singer go from a shy performer to the winner of American Idol Season 17. Not bad at all.

With Hardy being crowned American Idol, he made history as one of just two American Idol contestants to have returned to the show after losing and winning the competition. With his obvious talent, nationally-broadcast performance and teen idol looks, American Idol fans across the country are interested in the big news and little details of Laine’s personal life and background.

What’s Laine Hardy’s Race and Ethnicity?

Those little details people are interested in include Laine’s features and what his race is.

From my perspective and from several angles, it was easy to tell that Laine was multiracial. It was clear to me that the American Idol winner was at least some part Asian. As much as he wore Elvis-inspired outfits and haircuts, whether he was aware of it or not, he was often serving up Cantonese pop star.

Of course all this is just a gut feeling and my entire life experience, but this was purportedly confirmed on Sunday night when his mother, Cindy Lou Hardy, posted several photos onto Facebook of her son. A look at her profile and it appears that Cindy Lou is also part Asian or has Asian lineage. Not only that, we got to meet Cindy Lou and her husband Barry during American Idol’s tradition of visiting the top three’s hometowns.

What is Laine Hardy’s racial background?

As we mentioned above, we also met Hardy’s father during the hometown visit segment and the general contractor appears to be Caucasian. If Cindy Lou, a real estate agent, is in fact, Asian, that would make Laine Hapa or multi-racial (or biracial) – that goes for all the Hardy siblings,  older brother Kyle and older sister Brittany), too. That also means he’s not just an American, but an Asian-American and mixed race American.

Now this is just an internet post and we’re just going off appearances nor did we run a 23andMe DNA test, so we’re uncertain of Laine’s true racial identity or what percentage Asian and White Laine actually is. We won’t know any of that until Laine or someone in his family gifts us with that information. As of this post, Laine hasn’t spoken publicly about his background, race, or ethnicity. In any case, we love seeing mixed-Asians stars, bi-racial athletes, and Asian actors popping up all over popular American culture in the last year..

To follow Laine Hardy, check out his official Facebook page here. For more about Laine, check out this post.