Going Live: Haley Reinhart's 'Rolling In The Deep'

Haley Reinhart. This woman is the gem of American Idol Season 10. I fucking adore her, her voice, her clothes, her image and her “don’t mess with me bitch” Chicago attitude. Frankly, I didn’t like her at all during the start of the season because her growling singing style for me was annoying like a lion trying to get out of a cage and her big blond curly locks certainly added to her lion persona. First I felt she was contrived in the sense of being this artistic soul girl, but then the last five weeks of the competition this woman has become my favorite. There’s a special quality to her vocal projection that goes leaps and bounds beyond any other contestant on the show this year. She has an infection assortment of tone that has such pizzazz and pierces through your ear.

Commercially, Haley has to take really careful steps post-idol in order to have longevity in the music industry. She can’t be brainwashed in becoming a one trick pop star pony singing about dance floors. She has to find a way in producing real authentic soul-rock music like Janis Joplin, Stevie Nicks and even Sheryl Crow, but done in a Top 40 context. It will be hard for her to survive just going real independent and adult contemporary to expect a long lasting impression. Many Idol alums has failed because they don’t become marketing savvy with their music or usually they are trapped in becoming just another ordinary pop star imitating an already existing act.

Talking about this performance, it was a self-satisfaction moment for me because I said a week earlier prior to the performance that I wanted Haley to create a moment with an Adele song. And what was the result of it? She fucking nailed it big time. Adele is possibly the hardest artist to cover right now considering the magnitude of her success and how people are very use to her voice right now. The comparisons were bound to happen, but overall I think Haley managed to pull through. Plus, this helped Haley to show her viability in becoming a contemporary recording artist. She has to stick to this Adele-Duffy-Amy Winehouse vein, but as said earlier, differentiate from them and not just become a mockery.  Musically, Haley used the growling and huskiness to capture the emotion of the song, but at times she added this soft girly romantic notes to sweetened out the song to not be too angry.

There’s also lots more memorable performances by Haley such as her duet with another contestant Casey Reinhart on a jazz rendition of Moanin’ and she also recently during Top 5 week got a standing ovation for sing House Of The Rising Sun, which I truly believed solidified her credibility and why she’s a dark horse of the competition even though I think she has a shot at only finishing fourth since America is rooting for the Country and Rock acts, but still, Hayler Reinhart…you captured my heart…(eeeew!).