Image Credit: Michael Becker / FOX
Perhaps surprisingly for a show filled with excitable teenagers who constantly dance up and down precarious stairwells wearing ridiculous clothes, there haven’t been too many falls in 10 seasons of American Idol. So we should pay special attention to Haley Reinhart’s tumble last night during a spirited performance of Led Zeppelin’s “What Is and What Should Never Be.” Haley took the fall in stride, gamely finishing the song with a wide smile on her face.
That misstep appeared to have endeared the singer to the judges (who haven’t always been on her side this season). Steven Tyler said sagely, “It’s not how many times you fall, it’s how many times you get up.” Jennifer Lopez reminded everyone that she fell onstage during one of several failed pre-Idol comeback attempts. Randy Jackson sputtered “In it to win it! In it to win it!” like a broken robot. What do you think, Idol fans? Did Haley show a superstar’s poise after her fall… or does the mere fact that she did fall mean she’s less deserving of the Idol crown than her more surefooted opponents? (Basically is this Kristin Holt all over again?) Check out video of her performance, and vote in our poll, after the jump…
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She is human people! The fall was nothing and she definitely handled it like a pro. Laughed it off. And it makes me love her even more.
It’s okay everyone. I beat the crap out of Haley backstage and she’ll never do it again.
…sluggish. Like her lyrics are dipped in honey.
Anyone feel like she was set up for failure by the judges? Their song choice for her was awful.
I agree. The judges Alanis Morissette song was a strange pick. I love that song, but I got scared that maybe the parents at home watching would get mad and not vote for her. So I do think that might have been a set up by the judges. I’m officially sick of jlo.
Oh, I just watched it again. It broke my heart for her last night, and again just now. It was worse knowing it was coming. I hope they don’t reshow it all the time like they did Lauren’s.
Me too. I’m not a fan of Lauren’s, but I hated that they kept showing her fall over and over. Totally unfair to her and it’s just mean.
That being said, I don’t think Haley’s fall should/will be held against her. It happens to everyone. She just had the misfortune of having it happen while she was on live TV. The fact that she got up and barely missed a beat shows her moxie. Oh, no – it has to be said….Haley is in it to win it!
I don’t think they will keep reshowing it over and over all season like they do with Lauren’s because it wasn’t a very good shot since the camera was pulling back for a long shot – you could barely tell she fell except that you did hear a thump and the sound dropped out. Lauren’s fall was a dragged out fall with the camera right there. The purpose of reshowing Lauren’s fall over and over was to show she was a dorky teen.
I agree, the fall shouldn’t be held against her. On the other hand, people shouldn’t give her pity votes just because she fell. It happened … so what? It wasn’t the end of the world.
she will be a huge success. Steve Tyler knows talent, and she has it.Randy and JLo didn’t like her from the start.
I have a phobia of high heels for this exact reason. Poor thing!! She handled it well.
What’s human people?
Anyone hear the news yesterday that Led Zeppelin contacted the Haley / Idol camp and offered any of their songs to Haley ONLY? It’s true. It’s only the 2nd time they have done so to an Idol performer. The first time was to Adam Lambert TWO YEARS AGO and he sang their hit, “Whole Lotta Love.”
I have to believe Zeppelin folks know a good singer when they hear one – in Haley. They did not make any offer to any other Idol performer this year.
Haley for the win!
Really? That’s so cool!
It didn’t happen quite like that… read the coaches blog for the real story. But it is rare for Page and Plant to allow their songs to be used and they did make an exception for Haley.
She’s human people? Of course she is.
Haley did 3 not-so-easy songs.
How do you think Scotty and Lauren would of done with them.
How would Haley of done the songs they did.
Rest my case. Haley!
However it turns out there are sure to be people out there waiting to sign Haley.
Would HAVE, would HAVE, would HAVE. Doesn’t ANYONE have an education anymore?
If defunding keeps occuring, no one will have an education.
amen!
Thank you! It seems like 95% of the time, people write it incorrectly and I don’t understand why.
Thank you!
It’s a singing competition – LOL
ME, You are absolutely correct in your comment Re; lack of education. The correct term is, I believe, “woulda”. No one with education would ever use all UPPER CASE LETTERS in the words”have”
and “anyone”.
No, proof that education is gone started the moment people started using FAIL as a noun. The word is FAILURE people!! Fail is a verb!
jlow: Since I don’t have the ability to italicize words – and I’m assuming others don’t either – then capitalizing words is the only way I can show emphasis. My guess? That was what Me was doing, too. (But I still liked your “woulda” contribution.)
Sadly, the English language has really suffered since most people don’t talk to each other anymore; they text or tweet or . . . . . .
And Noodles… with all the texting and tweeting going on isn’t that *more* of a reason to learn to spell and use grammar correctly? I’m agreeing with you completely, but I just don’t understand how that should be. Writing ability should be improving… not declining.
You guys are really sad people,go back into your worm holes and let the happy people have fun.Spelling! Really?
*We’re* sad? We were having fun… discussing for two minutes our pet peeves about the butchering of the English language. I’m sorry if you may have accidentally learned something. Don’t worry, it’s clearly not contagious.
You are right – the level of songs were just in different leagues for the three contestants.
Haley is clearly the best singer, but I have a bad feeling that she won’t make the finale. I hope I’m wrong. Scotty & Lauren would make for the most boring finale in Idol history — like watching a high school talent show.
Haley had 3 very tough songs. I doubt that Lauren or Scotty have the technical skill that Haley does to nail them like she did last night – even after falling down!
And kudows to Steven Tyler again for standing his ground with regard to Haley. He knows what JLO and Randy are up to and continued to stand up to them on behalf of Haley.
yes — the “of” for “have” is a baffling but growing phenomenon. “Of done”? How does that possibly make any sense?
LOVE HER. This performance was fantastic. Unfortunately, I didn’t think Rhiannon was a great choice for her; she sang it well enough, but it didn’t really show her voice off at all. And while she utterly killed the chorus of “You Oughta Know,” one of the vocal coaches ought to have suggested taking the song up maybe a whole step because the verses seemed to be uncomfortably low for her and thus they were kind of weak. Still, she won the night by a mile in my opinion. Lauren was pretty good, but never great (as usual; it’s a shame that she’s got such natural vocal talent but no idea what to do with it), and Scotty was just the same old Scotty I’ve seen for weeks and weeks. The ONLY performance of his that didn’t bore me to tears or make me cringe from the overdone corniness of his performance style was “Gone”. It irritates me that he has showed almost zero growth and yet he’s probably going to win. I liked him early on, but his repetitiveness just lost me after a few weeks. So anyways….I voted for Haley as much as I could last night. Fall or no fall, that girl is the most vocally and emotionally ready of the Top 3 to become a legitimate recording artist.
Here, here. I agree with everything you said. Especially your comments about Lauren. So much natural talent, but asbolutely no confidence or emotional connection to the music. What a shame, because she has the potential to be as great as Kelly or Carrie.
She reminds me more of Kelly Pickler than either Carrie or Kelly.
I think the difference is that Kelly and Carrie love singing and performing. I think Lauren does it because her mommy wants to be a star.
@billie-Totally agree.
Looks like mommy could booze it up pretty good. She probably did some partying in her time.
that would be “hear! hear!”
Lauren is SO young, but I think she will have a GREAT career someday!
I didn’t expect so much from Haley last night, but she clearly won the night. Scotty is good but he is always good. Lauren dropped off last night (and should have been gone weeks ago IMO).
Love Haley’s recovery and she is a class act. Even if she does not win AI, we’re gonna see this gal again.
Unfortunately, Crystal Bowersox took the night in the finals last year but DeWho? (DeWhy?) still won it… Thought Haley was great last night but her votes will be divided between “two women” and Haley vs. “Country.” Would like to believe that would work to her benefit, but if history is any indicator…
I agree with your opinions of Lauren and Haley, but just as a discussion point in regards to Scotty…if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. So he hasn’t “shown growth”…what kinda growing does he need to do? He already sounds like a fully grown 35 year old man to me. I don’t care for his style because I don’t like country, but the boy is a solid act and was from day one. Still, Haley FTW!!
I think he needs to show growth in the range of music. That is the point of idol and theme weeks. How will he handle Disco, R&B, etc. He was solid because he did what he knows best every week. Country. Big surprise
The problem is that if any other contestant had shown such a limited range, they would have been ripped apart by the judges. Scotty is fantastic at what he does, but no other contestant has ever been able to get away with only performing their genre. He knows who he is, that’s for sure, but the fact that the judges didn’t ask him to step it up shows quite a bit of bias.
K. Terrific analysis. Can’t really add anything that you haven’t already said. I will say this…..It’s for the reason you stated in the last paragraph that, although Haley deserves to win, she will be the least affected if she doesn’t.
Agree with it all, K. To show I’m not unfairly biased to only like Haley, I’ll give you one more Scotty performance I enjoyed…”You’ve Got a Friend.” And for Lauren, I think her best has been “Gunpowder and Lead” with Haley as a duet. She finally let go and had fun. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a performance night. But you could tell she was at ease and really feeling it. Her first (and only) complete performance all season. (Unlike Haley, who’s had several.)
She handled actual ‘fallin’ much better than she handled ‘Fallin’ in the semis.
Nice Kevin. Her “Fallin” was… yikes. But talk about someone who improved throughout the season. Not bad for someone’s whose second home was the bottom 3. I want her to win!
I abolutly hated the Zeppelin preformance I was also not impressed with the judges pick.
I agree with you 100% Lori.
Not surprised at you not being impressed with the judges’ pick, since it was expressly chosen to sabotage Haley. And as for the Zeppelin song… well, I’ll take Jimmy Page’s and Robert Plant’s opinion about Haley over anybody’s.
i LOVE the judge’s responses after she falls!
Love Haley. If it’s a Lauren/Scotty final, I won’t even bother to watch. They are both so boring.
So agree. Boring, boring, boring.
I won’t either. I fast forwarded after the first two rounds to watch Haley’s third performance, skipping the other two. I couldn’t sit through another boring, overplayed country-type song from Lauren or Scotty.
Just re-watched this performance. I got goosies!
LOVE HER!!!!!!!!!!!
As she started trotting around the judges table I thought “wow looks tough to run in those heels” then whoops! Still LOVED her guts and performance. If the final is Scotty/Lauren it’s going to be so ridiculously boring I really don’t even know if I’d watch.
this MUST be Mike C from 103.9…..You are soooo right….she needs to be in the finale, I have been on team haley from day 1…
Such an amazing performance. I actually teared up a little. Not sure wy, but I was moved by how wonderful and powerful the performance was. A very TRUE Idol moment. So, good! So, interesting! She should and I hope will make it to the finales. It should be her and Scotty. Agreed, Scotty and Lauren = boring finale.
I love that her dad got to play the guitar with her!
I not only loved that her Dad played guitar with Haley, I loved that he was THAT GOOD! He was HOT! I hope we see more of him! He is a professional musician and was allowed onstage.
to me, the best thing about this video is her and her dad – so awesome!
It wasn’t fair that they allowed her father to play. I didn’t see anyone else’s father being allowed to be on stage (playing an instrument or not) while their son or daughter was performing.
We will probably see more of it in the future … maybe no one asked before ??
Well, mabye that’s because their fathers don’t play or if they do, maybe they are good enough players to be up there. The latter would be my guess. Her dad is a solid player with style and ability to cover it. He deserved to be up there.
I meant to say “not” good enough to be up there in my last comment…
Haley has the voice, the looks, and the personality to launch a great career!! Fall or no fall I voted until my fingers couldn’t vote anymore! If anyone doubts this girl’s ability, listen to “I Who Have Nothing”….OMG, what talent!!
I agree….. I Who Have Nothing was a HUGE moment for her and it was amazing! I’ve watched it, like, 500 times! She’s going to win!!!! Vote HALEY!
Haley all the way. if it’s a Scotty/Lauren Final it will be so BORING we’ll have to go to the movies or watch re-runs on some other station….re-runs wouldn’t be as boring as a Scotty/Lauren final.
I’d rather watch a Hee Haw rerun than a Scotty,Lauren final.Haley needs to be there next week to balance out the country boredom.
Once Pia left, this show went to hell in a handbasket.
I hope its Scotty and Lauren in the final I love the way they all sing and Haley is good but she knows it and lets it shows which makes her come off as a snob either way she already has a deal in the bag