Katana VentraIP

Haley Reinhart

Haley Elizabeth Reinhart[4] (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.[3] Her debut album Listen Up! was released on May 22, 2012, to critical acclaim,[5][6] and she subsequently became the first American Idol alumna to perform at Lollapalooza.

Haley Reinhart

Haley Elizabeth Reinhart

(1990-09-09) September 9, 1990
  • Singer
  • songwriter
  • actress

2015–present

Vocals

2009–present

Independent[1][2] (2014–present)
Concord Records (2017)
19[3] (2011–2014)
Interscope Records[3] (2011–2012)

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. Additionally, she made her voice acting debut as Bill Murphy in the Netflix animated comedy F Is for Family on December 18, 2015. She reprised the role as a main cast member in the series' second, third, fourth, and fifth seasons.


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.[7][8] The album debuted at number 22 on Billboard's Independent Albums chart.[9] 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 gained additional notice as 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.


Reinhart made her live-action acting debut in the 2020 film We Can Be Heroes. 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.

Early life[edit]

Haley Elizabeth[4] Reinhart was born in Wheeling, Illinois, on September 9, 1990, to Patti Miller-Reinhart and Harry Reinhart,[10] both of whom are musicians[11] and native Chicagoans from the north side and south side, respectively.[12] She has one sister, Angela, who is five years younger than her.[13] Angela is a singer-songwriter and musician, as well, and she primarily performs indie folk music.[14] Reinhart is of German, Irish, and Italian descent.[13] 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".[15] 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.[16] Reinhart's mother was also the lead singer for a band called The Company She Keeps before she joined Midnight in 1977.[17] 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.[18] She has been writing poetry since she was eight years old and has competed in many poetry slam competitions throughout her life.[13] She also has a passion for improv and has been active in plays, musicals, and skit performances since childhood.[13][19] 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."[20] She had several hundred compositions saved on her cell phone before it broke, losing all of the material.[20] 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".[21]


She attended Mark Twain Elementary School, O.W. Holmes Middle School, and Wheeling High School.[22] While in high school, Reinhart was first introduced to Jazz music after becoming a part of the school's vocal group called Midnight Blues.[13] 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.[20][23] 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.[12] 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.[11][14] She performed with the college's Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Lab.[24] These events during her late education allowed her to gain experience singing Cole Porter standards in such historic places as Switzerland and Italy.[13][18] 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.[14] She worked as a lifeguard at the Family Aquatic Center, a waterpark at the Wheeling Park District, for three years prior to auditioning for American Idol.[14][25]

Artistry[edit]

Style[edit]

Reinhart's style has been noted for its infusion of mainstream pop with elements of retro-pop and traditional jazz.[77][122][217] Her performances on Idol were often critically praised for their jazzy and bluesy elements built upon a Joplin-esque rock foundation.[218] Reinhart's debut album was also distinguished for its fusion of various musical genres, such as pop, R&B, rock and roll, and soul into a combination that has been described as "timeless and irresistibly fresh".[17] Reinhart has crafted her music to reflect "that raw musicianship that means so much to me."[17] Of her first album she describes "it wasn't about trying so hard; it was all about pure feeling and energy. To me that's the important stuff. That's what I want to bring back into music today."[17] Jason Scott of Popdust noted Reinhart for the "slinky way she delivers a lyric... an unfettered, daring confidence masked with a wink and a smile."[158] In a review for Better, he also opined that "her framework has always been the jazz standards of the '30s and '40s with a lacquered coat of '60s disco, with a bit of soul painted on for equal measure."[219] Zach Dionne for Fuse described Reinhart as a "soulful, jazzy, altogether genre-defying singer-songwriter."[220] Of Reinhart's style, Atwood Magazine noted "from the bluesy rocker-chick during her Idol era to her more pop-driven Motown vibe in her first album Listen Up! to her current jazz-funk fusion sound on her latest album Better, Reinhart has proven time and time again that she is no jack-of-all-trades, but the master and supreme innovator of each one."[221]


Reinhart's neo soul and R&B sounds have been compared to those of her modern contemporaries like Adele, Duffy, and Amy Winehouse, while her retro pop, disco, and jazz sounds have been equated to Nancy Sinatra, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Aretha Franklin, and other Motown artists.[78][219] Atwood Magazine further attributed Reinhart "with the wild side of Janis Joplin, the class of Ella Fitzgerald, and the cutting-edge influence of Etta James, which proves that there is nothing she can't do."[221]

Voice and timbre[edit]

Reinhart is vocally a light lyric soprano and her range spans three octaves.[222] Reinhart's voice has been praised for its identifiable rasp and growl, which she is able to control for extended periods of time without suffering any vocal degradation.[219][222][223] She has been noted for her ability to easily transition from gentle vibratos and whispers in her lower register to "guttural bellows" in her belting register.[222][224] Reinhart's voice has also received praise for its "smoky", sultry quality and resonant sound.[77][224][225] She has been recognized further for the versatility of her voice and for the effective use of her falsetto.[222]


Reinhart has been lauded for her scatting techniques reminiscent of Fitzgerald,[226][227] as well as for her yodeling.[228][229] Her frequent call and response sessions during her live performances have also received particular praise.[230][231] Reinhart's early vocal training came from her mother, and she has never been trained professionally.[232] Growing up, she learned her scatting and call-and-response techniques from her father, who would scat and then make her repeat the sounds back to him.[232]

(2012)

Listen Up!

(2016)

Better

(2017)

What's That Sound?

Lo-Fi Soul (2019)

Off the Ground (2022)

(2011, 2012, 2016, 2022)

American Idol

(2012)

Hell's Kitchen

(2012)

90210

Real Music Live (2013)

[88]

(2015–2021)

F Is for Family

(2020)

We Can Be Heroes

Americana (short film) (2022)

Media related to Haley Reinhart at Wikimedia Commons

on Allmusic

Haley Reinhart

at IMDb

Haley Reinhart