The Hollywood Reporter confirms Idol appearance by Haley

[abc890]

From what I have been seeing from twitter and reviews is that most people loved her performance, which is great

Most of the hesitant reviews are from her loyal fans who would have preferred a less produced staging.

[John Brown]

Heads up. Given the fact that many of last season's performances of Haley and the other idols are being blocked lately on youtube, I would advise everyone to download that HD version of Haley's performance tonight before it too gets blocked. Be forewarned.

[Miguel]

Newsday:

Haley Reinhart is back on the show, singing "Free" in a giant golden 'birdcage' on stage. This is like a Las Vegas production of a cabaret, odd mix of the spectacular balanced by the intimacy of her gorgeous voice.

[buzzenator]

I don't feel like Haley got enough of a reaction from that performance on Twitter. 19 didn't help with that stupid #freehaley hash tag. Ideally, "Haley Reinhart" or "Haley" and "Idol" would have trended naturally.

She put forth a heckuva effort but I don't think it's a song that grabs a live audience if they're not familiar with it. Maybe if she had sung it in quieter fashion with less movement it would have sucked them in.

Let me preface what I am about to say. I love Haley, I will always follow her & I will ignore the haters. However, I was disappointed with this performance, mainly the performance part. Her vocals were spot on but the actual performance had too many bells & whistles for my taste. An understated delivery, IMO, would have been the bomb. She looked beautiful, I loved the dress but her hair seemed to overpower the song.

I guess the reason I am disappointed is because AI is such a huge platform....maybe I don't know what I'm talking about & she wowed America.

Please feel free to refute my observations.

Your observations are right. A lot of people are disappointed but I don't think it's Haley's doing. This is Hollywood this is live TV and this is America Idol. That's what they do they glitter and glam everything to the highest Hollywood is always done it and they always will. I really don't think she had much choice in what she wore, or the way her hair was done up, this is all a production thing. I don't think it's going to matter much people are in love Haley for who she. And at the end of the day she still Haley Reinhart the girl that we've been pulling for for over a year.

After a little processing time I think we had our expectations too high with all the anticipation of waiting months for this. The bird cage was distracting at the beginning, the hair was too VaVoom to one side and we really missed out on the "live" performance and a little post-performance Ryan interview.

However, compared to Lana Del Ray, she looks and sounds like a super star...which she is still on course to become. She has it...looked fabulous, sounded fabulous and this is all part of the process of rolling out the first album.

After listening to the new single, studio version, I am excited about her debut. She will do well with this single and Interscope is doing a great job handling our girl...their star!

---

Very nice PopCrush review:

http://popcrush.com/haley-reinhart-perfo...ican-idol/

Tonight (March 22) marked Season 10 contestant Haley Reinhart‘s highly anticipated return to the ‘American Idol‘ stage. She has a new album, ‘Listen Up!’ on the horizon, set to drop via Interscope on May 22. It was the perfect opportunity for the husky-voiced singer to offer up a live rendering of her new single ‘Free.’

Reinhart turned the sexy meter up to 11, thanks to her form-fitting hot pink gown, the piles of curls pushed to one side of her head and the fact that she performed in a lighted birdcage, sauntering inside of the bars as she sang. From her styling to the staging, it was a “Va va va voom!” performance from stem to stern. Haley was, in a word, hot. She has matured so much in the space of a year, coming across like a modern Stevie Nicks, with a little less gypsy and a lot more glam.

‘Free’ is a mid-tempo, semi-jazzy and totally soulful romp that sounds like it was penned expressly for Haley Reinhart, since it plays to her smoky strengths.

She may not have won the ‘Idol’ crown in 2011, but Reinhart’s career doesn’t appear to be hindered by that fact. Tonight’s performance made us anxious to ‘Listen Up!’

[NUG]

From what I have been seeing from twitter and reviews is that most people loved her performance, which is great

Most of the hesitant reviews are from her loyal fans who would have preferred a less produced staging.

That's what I've noticed too - like the public at large was eager to embrace her, but her core fans aren't thrilled...I loved it, personally. They should have had both verses, and I coulda done without the cage, but what ever.

[Shela]

Wow...the level of negativity in MJSbigblog is actually off puttin...Guessing it comes mostly from other idols followers who make of hating a sport and still think they are in a competition. Still, to find hard criticism from the IDF surprises me, maybe Haliens have a strong idea of what they want to see from her and settle to nothing else.

Did I totally enjoy the performance...maybe not, I loved her voice as usual and the whole big star appeal of it, but I´m guessing now that the only place I could find some level of objetivity towards this had to be outside the Idol bubble and away from hardcore fans. Fortunately, this is a very open forum to all sorts of opinions.

I like the Popcrush review. Thanks for posting.

[Haleylvr4evr]

I loved her performance! I think the only reason some of you think it was "over done" or whatever is because we're so used to the acoustic or live version. She did great and had fun!

[Miguel]

Buzz, nice post and nice find.

[alpha7388]

I detect a wisp of negativity which I would like to put into perspective.

For the most die-hard fans, such as on this forum, the perfect performance would be Haley, alone under a bright light and perfect silence singing into 7 of the highest quality, ultra sensitive microphones.

The only allowed disturbance would be for the parting of the firmament (only after she had sung her final note) for the Lord himself to make Himself visible with nodding approval and appropriate applause.

Haley was wonderful tonight. She had a high-class professional dress and a beautiful tan. Her hair was wild, worn to the side and looked fantastic. The production was what one would expect from Idol for a superstar. The iconic image of her under the spotlight backlighting in her shear dress is beyond description. She moved effortlessly and owned the stage. Her band was proud and played very well.

The purpose was to showcase her debut single and herself as a rising superstar to an audience of tens of millions. It was a stunning success.

[Miguel]

Good post, alpha7388.

Huge musical acts have had bells and whistles to go with their performances for decades. It's part of what people pay for when they go to a show. And these days, when nearly anyone can press a passable CD due to autotune, it's sometimes more important than the voice.

I think Haley's fan base is a bit conflicted because she's a vocal powerhouse and yet she has detractors who say she can't sing. So we want her to amaze everyone with just her voice and a microphone.

We'll likely see more production pieces in the future because she is going to be a star and I think she finds the staging to be a bit of fun.