Lauren Bennett

Lauren Diane Bennett was born on 23 June 1989 in Meopham, Kent, England, and grew up in The Valley near Culverstone. She later used the surname Bennett-Wormald in some records. Motown, soul, and her mother's jazz records filled the house. Her father brought home a karaoke machine that made singing a daily habit rather than a hobby.

From age twelve she entered local talent contests. From about fourteen she performed in pubs and bars as part of a duo. She later described growing up in The Valley as a place where fancy skirts drew laughs, a tomboy upbringing that sat beside an early professional drive. By her mid-teens she was already treating performance as work, not only pastime.

Bennett attended Meopham School in Kent. Formal schooling ran alongside an accelerating performance schedule of contests, pub gigs, and, in 2006, a national television audition.

That year she competed on The X Factor as part of the duo Fusion with friend Francesca Burraston. They reached bootcamp and were eliminated by Louis Walsh. Contemporary coverage quoted Bennett saying the pair had been under-prepared. The setback redirected rather than ended her path. Attention after the show helped open the audition that took her to Los Angeles with Paradiso Girls at seventeen.

Paradiso Girls, assembled by Robin Antin as a multinational counterpart to the Pussycat Dolls, gave Bennett her first major label platform. Their 2009 single "Patron Tequila," featuring Lil Jon and Eve, reached number 3 on Billboard Dance Club Songs and number 82 on the Canadian Hot 100. After a weaker follow-up and a label drop, the group disbanded in 2010.

Featured vocals defined the next breakthrough. She appeared on CeeLo Green's "Love Gun" and then on LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem" (2011), recorded after the duo called her during their U.S. tour. The song hit number 1 in about twenty countries, including the US and UK, earned multi-platinum and Diamond certifications in major markets, and became a decade-defining party record. She released solo single "I Wish I Wish" the same year.

Antin next folded her into a reworked Pussycat Dolls project that relaunched as G.R.L. in 2013 with Paula Van Oppen, Natasha Slayton, Emmalyn Estrada, and Simone Battle. "Vacation" appeared on The Smurfs 2 soundtrack. In 2014 G.R.L. featured on Pitbull's "Wild Wild Love" (UK number 6, US Hot 100 number 30) and scored with "Ugly Heart" (Australia number 2, UK number 11, New Zealand top five) from their self-titled EP.

After Battle's death in 2014, the group released "Lighthouse" (2015) for mental-health awareness, then disbanded. Bennett later reformed G.R.L. with Slayton and Jazzy Mejia (2016), released "Hurricane" as a solo single the same year, featured on Nick Martin's "Reality" and Nervo and Savi's "Forever or Nothing," and formed the duo BENNETT with her brother Ryan in 2017. G.R.L. continued intermittent touring into 2020.

Bennett kept much of her private life off the gossip cycle even as her voice became ubiquitous. She divided formative years between Kent and Los Angeles, eventually living in the Hollywood Hills while promoting "Party Rock Anthem."

Her long-term partner was dancer and actor Kenny Wormald, known for the Footloose remake and as a co-owner of Playground dance studios with Robin Antin. Their daughter, Harlow, was born on 6 September 2019. Bennett announced the birth on Instagram with Wormald. She is also survived by her father, Richard Bennett, and her brother Ryan, with whom she made music as BENNETT. She uploaded a cover of "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" as a late social-media post in February 2026.

Mental health advocacy became a public thread of Bennett's work after Simone Battle's death. With G.R.L. she supported Give an Hour and Change Direction through the G.R.L. Gives an Hour campaign and the tribute single "Lighthouse." She argued that because the group reached young listeners, they had a duty to start conversations about hopelessness, withdrawal, and asking for help.

Her 2016 single "Hurricane" returned to that theme from a personal angle, citing Battle's death and her mother's long mental-health struggles. She pledged a portion of proceeds to The Campaign to Change Direction. In interviews she stressed humility, loyalty to bandmates she called family, and a wish that music communities use their influence carefully.

Bennett's most lasting commercial imprint is "Party Rock Anthem," a global number 1 that still defines early-2010s dance-pop and has been ranked among Billboard's most successful songs. With Paradiso Girls and G.R.L. she also helped carry Robin Antin's girl-group lineage into a new decade, scoring international hits with "Ugly Heart" and "Wild Wild Love."

Equally important to many fans is the mental-health work tied to "Lighthouse" and "Hurricane." After her death, bandmates, Antin, Official Charts, and outlets from the Guardian to BBC framed her as both a party-anthem voice and a colleague remembered for kindness and humor. Her father asked that she be remembered for her achievements, her music, and the person she was, with her legacy continuing through her daughter and family.

Bennett's featured and group releases collected major chart and certification milestones rather than a long list of named industry trophies.

"Party Rock Anthem" reached number 1 in about twenty countries, spent six weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 and four weeks at UK number 1, and earned certifications including RIAA Diamond, BPI multi-platinum, ARIA multi-platinum, and Music Canada multi-platinum. Billboard has ranked it among the most successful songs of all time. Paradiso Girls' "Patron Tequila" hit number 3 on Billboard Dance Club Songs. G.R.L.'s "Ugly Heart" reached number 2 in Australia and number 11 in the UK; Pitbull's "Wild Wild Love" featuring G.R.L. reached number 6 in the UK and number 30 on the Hot 100. "Lighthouse" charted in the UK following its 2015 release.

Bennett's silver Union Flag look in the "Party Rock Anthem" video became one of the clip's visual signatures as the video surpassed two billion YouTube views. G.R.L.'s "Vacation" tied the group to The Smurfs 2 soundtrack, while soundtrack and film-adjacent work also included contributions associated with Date Night and 21 Jump Street.

She gave interviews to outlets including Schön! Magazine, appeared in press tied to Good Morning America and awards-show performances with Pitbull, and remained a recurring subject of Kent local media from her LMFAO breakthrough through obituaries in 2026. After her death, Instagram tributes from G.R.L., Aria Crescendo, and Robin Antin circulated widely alongside coverage from the Guardian, BBC, USA Today, Variety, and Official Charts.

No major career scandal defined Bennett's public life. After July 2026 obituaries, some entertainment outlets reported that her death was under investigation and repeated unverified suggestions about manner of death. Her father said the family had no suspicions regarding the circumstances and focused criticism on what he described as inadequate NHS care after a severe reaction to prescribed medication months earlier.

Police stated the death was not being treated as suspicious. An official cause has not been made public pending the coroner's inquest. Responsible accounts treat those questions as unresolved rather than settled fact.

Lauren Bennett died in Meopham, Kent, on 29 May 2026, aged 36. Kent Police were called to an address in the village at about 2pm after concerns for a person's welfare. Officers and ambulance services attended, and a woman in her thirties was pronounced dead. Police said they were not treating the death as suspicious and prepared a report for the coroner.

G.R.L. members Emmalyn Estrada, Natasha Slayton, and Paula van Oppen publicly announced her death on 6 July 2026. Her father, Richard Bennett, posted a tribute describing a severe medication reaction months earlier and disappointment with medical care over five months, while asking for privacy. A Kent and Medway Coroner's inquest was scheduled for 30 October 2026. The official cause of death has not been made public.