Two Haley songs cleared to sing on American Idol

[Miguel]

909

[30CamdenSquare]

Angela Miller does have a good voice from this season of AI. She's confident, pretty, a songwriter, and plays piano. And seems to be one of the front runners. We'll have to see where this goes... I like Candice Glover too, but not in the song she sang tonight.

But I agree with you, no one is like Haley! I was completely all on board after seeing her sing "Baby It's You" in Hollywood! Hard to believe it's been 2 years already.

I was also impressed w/ Angela Miller tonight. Especially since the song she sang was an original... a good original song. Also the girls who sang "Stars" & "Landslide" impressed me tonight. My favorite Idol contestants are always the ones who are choosing to sing songs I like, so for me, that's usually some combination of blues, jazz, soul, classic & modern rock, and some of the bluesier pop... Pink, Alicia Keys etc. Then on top of that I have to like (or love) their voice & singing style. For example I love 60's soul, but please don't "take it to church" or Broadway for that matter. Jennifer Holiday can stay at home. That's way too over the top.

Anyway I just meant to get on and say "Undone" was at #917 at about 1:30am. (Edit: 909 @ 2am - Thanks Miguel). Really this is still just a moderate bump so far though. The bottom half of the chart is cheap but I don't think it has peaked yet. All these bits of media exposure contribute to keeping Haley in the public eye and increasing her fanbase, even if individually they don't seem that significant.

[Tusk]

Slezak's review:

On the ladies’ side, it came down to Rachel Hale vs. Stephanie Schimel — or was it Haley Reinhart vs Phillip Phillips? Interestingly, Rachel chose Haley’s “Undone,” but proved that bigger isn’t always better when her belty approach scraped up against the guard rails; Stephanie showed a light, lilting tone on P2′s smash, but wound up getting cut, perhaps because her total body of work didn’t match up to Rachel’s?

http://tvline.com/2013/02/14/american-id...ouncement/

I appreciate that "Undone" was chosen to perform, but the little clip we saw, it seemed like she went at the song too strong
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xxioe4_...l-12_music
(Her sing off performance is not available on AI's Youtube channel as they posted the wrong video in it's place)

...Thing is...performing a Haley song is not only about being a belter, having a 'growl' or the whistle notes....it's also about the subtlety and tenderness.

Undone's poignant 'sweet spot' is near the end as Haley pulls back in the chorus after the bridge as the music quiets @2:51



I guess it's an unfair point since we didn't see Rachel perform that part of the song, it's just Haley is so adept at finessing her performances that sometimes it's not apparent until you hear someone else try to do what Haley does so easily

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Courtney Leonard‏@KortHaussProd

Watching @AmericanIdol tonight made me want to hear @HaleyReinhart sing "Undone"! There's nothing like the real thang baby! Uh, huh! :-)

[Himm2]

You may have also noticed that Isabel Pasqualone (B&W stripes short hair) was briefly shown saying "I chose this song because I was in a relationship that was UNDONE..." or something to that affect so the spoiler was right about her also singing it but they said she made it thru (not true). They were completely wrong that Shelby Tweton also sang it and got booted...It was annoyingly happy country twang singer Rachel Hale, which is very odd why she chose that song but maybe she wanted to show a more gloomy side. Wish it came off like Angie Miller's original with all 4 judges standing ovations but then people might have said she sang it better than Haley - which I believe is impossible to do.

I did go to Midnight Trios gig at Tuscany last night immediately after the girls top 20 were shown and had my usual wonderful chats with Harry & Patti. I gave them the spoiler of what happened with Haley's song because obviously they couldn't have viewed it while they were performing. Surprising they both said they forgot to set their DVR so I volunteered to deliver a DVD of it to them this morning. Got a few juicy tidbits from both that once they are confirmed might mention but I can say that Patti said Haley is working on her second album and recording almost every day. I suspect that one of the reasons Harry & Patti were in LA a week ago was to also record with her but don't quote me on that cuz it's just a guess. She also said that more than a half hour of video was shot of Casey & his Blue Gorilla & Jack Black and they had to trim it down to about 3 1/2 minutes. I'll see them again Saturday night when Babbs joins me at the Moose lodge.

[Miguel]

Good stuff. I thought that might be a reason Haley's parents were in LA because Haley had said she would ideally like to get her dad to lay down some bluesy guitar licks on her second album. But I am surprised they are that far along.

[Swansteel]

Thanks, Himm! You added a little boost to my day with the news that Haley is actually recording songs for her next album and not just working with writers with fingers crossed. That is very cool to hear, my man!!

[Tom22]

.... Isabel Pasqualone (B&W stripes short hair) was briefly shown "..." or something to that affect so the spoiler was right about her also singing it but they said she made it thru (not true).

Both MJ's and Sleezak show Isabelle on their updated final 40 lists. Oddly, the official AI site doesn't have a list of the top 40 in an easy to find place to confirm or show their lists are in err.

...It was annoyingly happy country twang singer Rachel Hale, which is very odd why she chose that song but maybe she wanted to show a more gloomy side.

ww. Well I can't argue that you know what you're annoyed by; I find that Rachel always makes me happy. In my opinion, she stretched to far on the last big run in Undone and turned what could have been an "8" with a decent finish into a "6" performance as it came off.

What I might take issue with is calling "undone" a gloomy song . (to be fair I know you might have chosen that word quickly)

I know there are strong opinions about that nature of "undone". I might use the word "tragic" more readily even if it isn't right ... I'd be thinking more of the Shakespeare tragedies. His tragedies while having very sad endings were full of expressions of aspiration and possibility.

From the small sample that we have seen, I find something far deeper about Rachel that fuels the bubbly-ness, and one that has fit at least one of Rachel's other song choices in addition to Undone.

Haley has called herself a "romantic" many times and I take that word, and I've seen that in her work, in a way that doesn't mean ditsy songs about "love" in a simple context but something more sweeping and timeless that transcends the individuals involved (even assuming it is about a relation between a couple)

To me Undone is uplifting in that way. It paints a sublime description of love lost that transcends our daily reality. Talking about romanticism(as historical reference o a period of western arts) is probably beyond the scope of a fan site but that's never stopped me before : ) . here are some links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanticism

Romanticism (or the Romantic era/Period) was an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate period from 1800 to 1840. Partly a reaction to the Industrial Revolution,[1] it was also a revolt against aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature.[2] It was embodied most strongly in the visual arts, music, and literature, but had a major impact on historiography,[3] education[4] and the natural sciences.[5] Its effect on politics was considerable and complex; while for much of the peak Romantic period it was associated with liberalism and radicalism, in the long term its effect on the growth of nationalism was probably more significant.

The movement validated strong emotion as an authentic source of aesthetic experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as apprehension, horror and terror, and awe—especially that which is experienced in confronting the sublimity of untamed nature and its picturesque qualities, both new aesthetic categories. It elevated folk art and ancient custom to something noble, made spontaneity a desirable characteristic (as in the musical impromptu), and argued for a "natural" epistemology of human activities as conditioned by nature in the form of language and customary usage.

there is much more to it than that in the wikipedia article . A complex part of it is the willingness to put ideals before truth but those words on their own mean nothing

but create not merely the means but the goals that they pursue; these goals represent the self-expression of the artist's own unique, inner vision, to set aside which in response to the demands of some 'external' voice — church, state, public opinion, family friends, arbiters of taste — is an act of betrayal of what alone justifies their existence for those who are in any sense creative

and a contextual reference to "sublime" :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sublime_(philosophy)

Victor Hugo touched on aspects of the sublime in both nature and man in many of his poems (Poems of Victor Hugo). In his preface to the play, Cromwell,[16] he defined the sublime as a combination of the grotesque and beautiful as opposed to the classical ideal of perfection. He also dealt with how authors and artists could create the sublime through art. Both the Hunchback and Notre Dame Cathedral can be considered embodiments of the sublime as can many elements of Les Misérables

"Undone" along with many blues songs that may on the surface sound simple but they have a sort of epic sweep in their lyrics that make them more to me.

To me "Undone" is an expression of the limitless and paints a "grand"(my word for it) picture of love ... where the juxtaposition of loss and possibility is uplifting.

There are things that have to do with the "yodels" in the music itself of undone that inspire me but I haven't figured out how really pin down what I'm hearing to express that.

[Himm2]

Point taken Tom. I was just looking for a contrasting word to "Happy" not necessarily a description of Haley's version. It is a strongly emotional song that tugs at your yearning heartstrings. But I still think Rachel made it sound more gloomy and thought it was an odd choice for her. I would have much rather seen Stephanie Schmel sing it as I'd rather she advanced than Rachel, but maybe thats more my admiration of Barbie Dolls for the visuals as much as for her weaker vocals.

[Miguel]

943

[Haleylvr4evr]

Watched the show back from last night since I missed it. In the beginning they said its been 6 years since a girl won, and my mom said it should've been Haley for her season!