Background and career
Haley Elizabeth Reinhart (born September 9, 1990) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress from Wheeling, Illinois. She first rose to prominence after placing third in the tenth season of American Idol. In July 2011, Reinhart signed a recording deal with Interscope Records. Her debut album Listen Up! was released on May 22, 2012, to critical acclaim, and she subsequently became the first American Idol alumna to perform at Lollapalooza. Reinhart garnered widespread recognition in 2015 for performing and touring with Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox. Her most notable collaboration with the band on a jazz cover of Radiohead's "Creep" spent 58 consecutive weeks on Billboard's Jazz Digital Songs chart and received critical acclaim. In the same year, she gained additional notice when her cover of Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling in Love", which was used in a commercial for Extra Gum, became a viral sensation, peaked at number 16 on the US Adult Contemporary chart, and was later certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America on July 31, 2023. Reinhart won a Cannes Lion for Entertainment and a Clio Award for the song in 2016. Her second studio album, Better, served as an expansion of an initially conceived EP and was released on April 29, 2016, following the lead single and title track, "Better", which was released on April 8. The album debuted at number 22 on Billboard's Independent Albums chart. She supported the release of the album with a 2016 summer headlining tour that was held throughout the United States and a spring leg that was held throughout Europe in May and June 2017. Reinhart's third studio album, What's That Sound?, was released September 22, 2017 through Concord Records. The album produced four singles in total, including the lead single, "Baby It's You", which was released June 16, 2017. Reinhart supported the album with a 2017 fall US headlining solo tour. In 2018, Reinhart was a featured vocalist on Jeff Goldblum's debut album The Capitol Studios Sessions and on Vicetone's single "Something Strange", which peaked at number 23 on Billboard's Dance/Mix Show Airplay charts. On June 1, 2018, she released the standalone single "Last Kiss Goodbye", which charted at number 15 on Billboard's Jazz Digital Songs chart. Reinhart's fourth studio album, Lo-Fi Soul, was released on March 27, 2019. The album produced four singles in total, including the lead single "Don't Know How to Love You", which was released on September 14, 2018. The album was supported with a headlining North American tour in the fall of 2019. On September 4, 2022, she released her new EP, "Off the Ground". In winter 2023, she continued her "Off the Ground Tour" throughout North America. Reinhart made her voice acting debut in 2015 as Bill Murphy in the Netflix animated comedy F Is for Family. She reprised the role as a main cast member in the following seasons. Reinhart made her live-action acting debut in the 2020 film We Can Be Heroes.
Haley Elizabeth Reinhart was born in Wheeling, Illinois, on September 9, 1990, to Patti Miller-Reinhart and Harry Reinhart, both of whom are musicians and native Chicagoans from the north side and south side, respectively. She has one sister, Angela, who is five years younger than her. Angela is a singer-songwriter and musician, as well, and she primarily performs indie folk music. Reinhart is of German, Irish, and Italian descent. Around the age of three, her parents would hold her up on stage and have her sing the chorus or vocal harmonies for "Brown Eyed Girl". She began singing seriously when she was 7 or 8 years old, performing with her parents' band, Midnight, which covers rock songs from the 1960s and 1970s. Reinhart's mother was also the lead singer for a band called The Company She Keeps before she joined Midnight in 1977. When she was nine years old, Reinhart sang LeAnn Rimes' 1996 arrangement of Bill Mack's 1958 classic, "Blue", on a big stage at a tattoo convention, and she was met with "overwhelming" support from the audience. She has been writing poetry since she was eight years old and has competed in many poetry slam competitions throughout her life. She also has a passion for improv and has been active in plays, musicals, and skit performances since childhood. Reinhart began writing songs in Middle School, and she explains that "when I give myself the time to sit down, and reflect, and feel, and let things come out, I find that it's very easy for me to do." She had several hundred compositions saved on her cell phone before it broke, losing all of the material. Reinhart had planned on auditioning for American Idol ever since middle school, where she received an award at the end of the year for student "Most Likely to Be on American Idol". She attended Mark Twain Elementary School, O.W. Holmes Middle School, and Wheeling High School. While in high school, Reinhart was first introduced to Jazz music after becoming a part of the school's vocal group called Midnight Blues. She eventually performed at the 2009 Montreux Jazz Festival and Umbria Jazz Festival with her high school's jazz band, of which she was the first ever permanent singer. She reunited with the jazz band in 2015 when the director invited her to sing in their show at The Midwest Clinic located at McCormick Place – West, south of downtown Chicago. After graduating from high school in 2009, Reinhart attended Harper College in Palatine, Illinois from 2009 to 2010, where she studied jazz as a full-time student. She performed with the college's Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Lab. These events during her late education allowed her to gain experience singing Cole Porter standards in such historic places as Switzerland and Italy. Reinhart also fronted a band during college under such tentative names as Haley's Comet and Reinhart & the Rastatutes; the band covered classic rock songs from Led Zeppelin and other famous artists of the time. She worked as a lifeguard at the Family Aquatic Center, a waterpark at the Wheeling Park District, for three years before auditioning for American Idol.
Reinhart first auditioned for the ninth season of American Idol, in Chicago, but did not advance to the Hollywood round. However, she returned the following year for the tenth season of Idol in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and advanced after singing The Beatles' "Oh! Darling". Although she auditioned with two songs, the first being Alicia Keys's "Fallin'", only her second song choice of "Oh! Darling" was aired on television. She successfully progressed through the first Hollywood solo round after singing "Breathless" by Corinne Bailey Rae. In the group round of Hollywood week, her group mates included fellow finalist Paul McDonald, and she advanced even after forgetting some of the lyrics to "Carry On Wayward Son". Later in the second solo round, she performed "God Bless the Child", impressing the judges and making a comeback from her weaker group performance. In the Vegas Round, she grouped up with fellow finalists Naima Adedapo and Jacob Lusk to perform The Beatles's "The Long and Winding Road", which earned all three contestants a spot among the final 48 competitors. Reinhart was selected by the judges as a semi-finalist after her final Hollywood solo performance, and she was later voted into the Top 12 finalists after singing "Fallin'" by Alicia Keys during the live semi-final show. Though she was among the bottom three singers on four occasions during the finals, she advanced through to the penultimate week of the competition after giving memorable performances of "House of the Rising Sun" and "I (Who Have Nothing)" during Top 5-week and Top 4-week, respectively. She was eliminated in third place behind Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina, who progressed to the finale. She sang "Bennie and the Jets" for her farewell encore performance. Though the judges often harshly criticized her for song choices and stage presence, she was considered a fan-favorite and a dark horse in the competition. She is the only season 10 contestant who has over one million views on six of her YouTube performance videos: her renditions of Adele's "Rolling in the Deep", Elton John's "Bennie and the Jets", Ben E. King's "I (Who Have Nothing)", and her version of "House of the Rising Sun". Her performance of "God Bless the Child" hit 1,000,000 views in March 2014. The video of her audition performance of "Oh! Darling" reached 1,000,000 views in March 2016. Reinhart was also the only contestant in season 10 who received three standing ovations from the judges in consecutive weeks: "The House of the Rising Sun", "I (Who Have Nothing)", and Led Zeppelin's "What Is and What Should Never Be". Her performance of "Moanin'" with fellow contestant Casey Abrams during the Top 8 results show also received a standing ovation from the judges and was considered one of the best duets and performances of the season. During the American Idol Finale, Reinhart sang "Steppin' Out with My Baby" alongside jazz singer Tony Bennett, which also received a standing ovation. In preparation for the January 6, 2016 premiere of American Idol's Farewell Season, E! Online ranked Reinhart's cover of "Bennie and the Jets" as the series' 14th best performance, TVLine ranked the performance as the 6th best in Idol history, and BuzzFeed ranked it 1st on their list of the "17 Most Iconic American Idol Performances of All Time." Reinhart's performance of "The House of the Rising Sun" was included at number 9 on LA Times's list of the "10 Most Memorable Idol Performances of All-Time." In addition, Reinhart appeared twice on Billboard's list of "American Idol's Top 100 Live Performances." She was listed at number 68 for her interpretation of "Bennie and the Jets" and peaked on the list at number 18 for her cover of "The House of the Rising Sun". Additionally, Reinhart was ranked 26 out of 168 on Vulture.com's comprehensive list ranking all of the American Idol finalists from worst to best based on over-all performance within the scope of their respective seasons. She was praised for her "wildly uneven" performances and her fearlessness in confronting the judges about their critiques, factors the publication felt contributed to her being "one of the more convincing rocker-chicks to grace the Idol stage." In 2019, Screen Rant ranked Reinhart as the 6th best Idol singer to never win.
She received notable musician and celebrity support from Robert Plant, Lady Gaga, Jimmy Page, Kelly Clarkson, Adam Lambert, Tom Hanks, Blake Lewis, Melinda Doolittle, Kris Allen, Ellen DeGeneres, and others, who picked Reinhart as their favorite Season 10 contestant. Gaga cleared Reinhart's performance of "You and I" during Top 5-week, while Plant and Page contacted Idol producers and offered Reinhart the opportunity to sing a Led Zeppelin song for Top 3-week.
After her elimination, Reinhart had reportedly signed to Interscope Records, as per the implication of AI executive producer and director Nigel Lythgoe's tweet, which read: "Jimmy played me a song for Haley's record yesterday. Let's hope all the people that are professing love buy it and give her a great start." On May 28, 2011, Reinhart and the other American Idol top 4 performed at the opening of the new Microsoft Store at Lenox Square Mall in Atlanta, Georgia. On June 2, 2011, Reinhart was interviewed on Live with Regis and Kelly. She performed "House of The Rising Sun" on the show. On June 17, 2011, TVLine released an interview between Reinhart and Michael Slezak. They discussed her life before Idol, her "cannon fodder" edit on the show, her unfair treatment by the judges, her unique song choices that became known as "some of the best on Idol ever", and her future. Slezak crowned her TVLine's favorite Season 10 contestant and thanked her for "kicking ass" and being "a risk-taker and awesome". In less than a week, it garnered more responses than any other article on the site. Reinhart, along with the rest of the Top 11, toured the country as a part of the American Idols LIVE! Tour 2011, which ended on September 10, 2011. Reinhart, along with fellow contestants Scotty McCreery, Lauren Alaina, and James Durbin, released a Walmart Exclusive EP with her highlights from season 10 on American Idol. The tracks feature some of her popular performances such as "House of the Rising Sun" and "Bennie and the Jets" as well as a previously unreleased recording of "You Oughta Know". Reinhart's EP debuted at number 37 on the Billboard 200 with sales of 14,000. On July 26, 2011, it was confirmed that Reinhart signed to 19/Interscope Records. On August 16, 2011, Reinhart was an artist featured in the Huffington Post's article, "15 New, Young Artists on the Rise". Reinhart spent 2011 and early 2012 working on her debut album, which she described as R&B/soul music with jazzy influences. For her debut album Listen Up!, Reinhart stated that she wanted to have an "organic" feel to it, stating, "I want it to be real and I want it to have substance. Depth on different levels is so important to me...I want people to be able to run away with my melodies and get lost in them and take the lyrics and be able to relate to them." She wrote or co-wrote the majority of the tracks on the album. Later, Reinhart and Casey Abrams recorded a holiday song, a cover of "Baby, It's Cold Outside", which was released on November 21, 2011. The official video was released on November 15, 2011. The Idol duo performed "Baby, It's Cold Outside" and The Beatles's "All My Loving" in The Magnificent Mile Lights Festival and on Windy City Live in Chicago. Additionally, she performed an acoustic version of "Wild Horses" with Slash and Myles Kennedy on February 18, 2012, at the Power of Love Gala for Muhammad Ali. The first single of her debut album, "Free", was produced by Busbee and released on March 20, 2012. To promote the single, she performed "Free" and two other songs from her album, "Wasted Tears" and "Hit the Ground Running" at various venues. The promotional events included a release concert at the Hard Rock Cafe in Hollywood and a TV guest spot on the "Blue Ivy" episode of 90210. She also performed the single at the National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade in May 2012. The single reached number 104 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 26 on the Adult Top 40. "Free" achieved some success in the Philippines, as well. Reinhart's debut album Listen Up! was released on May 22, 2012 and debuted at number 17 on the Billboard 200, with 20,000 copies sold. Listen Up! was highly praised by critics for its retro sound and neo-soul, funk, and jazz influences. As of 2016, Listen Up! has sold 77,000 copies. "Free" was used as the goodbye anthem for the ninth season of So You Think You Can Dance, while "Undone" was featured in Step Up Revolution and sung by Rachel Hale in the Hollywood Rounds on the twelfth season of American Idol. In June 2012, Reinhart participated in the Taco Bell All-Star Legends and Celebrity Softball Game, which aired after the 2012 Major League Baseball Home Run Derby. During the same month, she was also featured on a duet of "Hit the Road Jack" on Casey Abrams' self-titled debut album. On August 3, 2012, Reinhart performed songs from her debut album backed by her family on instrumentation and backup vocals at the 2012 Lollapalooza festival, becoming the first American Idol contestant to achieve the feat. In October 2012, she performed several jazz songs at Carnegie Hall with Irvin Mayfield. At the end of 2012, Reinhart was dropped from Interscope Records, supposedly due to poor album sales and chart performance; however, the official reason remains undisclosed. In January 2013, Reinhart was the Critics' Choice performer on the second episode of the NBC series Real Music Live. She performed "Oh My!" and then later joined the announcers for an interview in which she detailed how her life had changed since her run on Idol. Later in 2013, Reinhart traveled to Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia and held a mini promotional concert for the twelfth season of American Idol. In Jakarta, Reinhart was a musical guest on the X Factor Indonesia singing "Bennie and the Jets". During the same year, Reinhart also attended an Ole song writing camp to write for Roc Nation artists at Westlake Studios. One of the songs she wrote, "Love Not War", was leaked online in May 2014. A song Reinhart originally co-wrote for Listen Up!, "Get Yourself Together", was recorded by The Voice finalist Christina Grimmie for her 2013 album, With Love.
Reinhart announced that work had begun on an EP in 2013. Reinhart began an Indiegogo campaign in February 2014 to fund a music video for her new single, "Show Me Your Moves". In April, her song "Listen", later included in her second studio album, was used for a Showtime miniseries called Years of Living Dangerously. The Indiegogo campaign to fund the release of her music video became fully funded during the same month. The video was filmed in the Mojave Desert in May 2014 over the span of 18 hours with the help of a 40-person production team. The single and video were released on July 30, 2014. The music video was written and directed by choreographer Danni Gutierrez, and produced and filmed by Avi Cohen from White Revolver Productions. Throughout 2014, Reinhart performed several small-scale gigs in support for her EP, debuting several original songs in her performances at Room 5 Lounge in Los Angeles. She was joined on several occasions by Casey Abrams, as well as well-known songwriters Dylan Chambers and BC Jean, who provided back-up instrumentation and vocals during her performances. In October 2014, Reinhart signed a deal with independent management company Ole, where they gained worldwide co-publishing rights to her existing and future work and also agreed to provide financial support for the recording of an EP. On November 13, 2014, Reinhart performed with Irvin Mayfield and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra at the House of Blues in New Orleans, where she provided vocals for jazz versions of classic rock songs from Led Zeppelin, Nirvana and Queen.
