‘American Idol’ notes: Haley Reinhart, Kris Allen, and Heejun Han

For our second Tuesday edition of “American Idol” notes, we’re going a little bit all over the place when it comes to our subject matter — but there are some interesting things to report.
Haley and Kris move up – While Haley Reinhart and Kris Allen are each likely expected to debut with somewhere between 16,000-21,000 copies of their new albums (with a slight edge up to Haley), there is some good news to report from the Hot AC radio shart.
For the first time since their singles “Free” and “The Vision of Love” debuted, both songs have reached the top 30 on the chart — with Haley at #29 and Kris at #30. (However, expect the two to flip-flop positions within the next 48 hours or so.) Getting some airplay should not only help both of them sell more singles, but hopefully bring some attention to what are two pretty fantastic albums that aren’t getting enough love just yet.
Heejun covers “How Deep is Your Love” – Get your hankies ready, mostly because this is one of the sweetest / saddest things that we have seen all day.
Along with Arden Cho and Gerald Ko, Heejun Han can be seen in the video below giving a pretty memorable cover of “How Deep is Your Love” by the Bee Gees in what is a tribute to the late Robin Gibb. This shows just what sort of vocal Heejun is capable of when giving the right material, and he is already planning to launch a singing career over in South Korea.
Did producers get Ruben wrong? – “Idol” executive producer Nigel Lythgoe did a lengthy (and fascinating) interview over at TVLine, and one of the more interesting comments to come out of it (outside of Nigel and Fox head Kevin Reilly being at odds over “The X Factor” leading to some viewer decline for all singing competitions) was that he felt that record executives failed to understand what sort of performer Ruben Studdard was after his season 2 win:
” I do love the validation when they are successful. And I get annoyed when the record company, in my opinion, gives them the wrong music to sing. The best example I can give you of that is Ruben Studdard. I believe they just said, ‘Oh, you’re black, you should be singing urban music,’ rather than [envisioning] this wonderful sort of crossover artist that he was. He was singing Neil Sedaka and the Bee Gees songs beautifully — in a sort of Donny Hathaway- Luther Vandross way. They just put him in this [narrow] category, which was a shame to me.”
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What do you think about Nigel’s comments? Feel free to share below, and as always stay tuned for more “Idol” news!
Photo: Interscope / 19
Shander
June 15, 2012 @ 2:26 am
The girl has a beautiful voice to match her beautiful face. Beautiful,, not cute…beautiful.
Heejun has a beautiful voice. I’ll stop there.
Haley’s album is amazing start to finish. I really hope music is moveing the direction her album takes a major shift to. While not exactly the same, the best comparison i’ve heard to explain haley’s album is to compare it with Bruno Mars… I didn’t really realize the songs I had heard here and there on the radio were Bruno’s . I bought his album and listened to it 5 times on a drive from LA to San Franscisco.. He’s great… lyrical, melodies with interesting harmonic change ups and a general optimism about the world eve when sining of sad things.. but plenty of delicious pleasures sung about both on Haley and Bruno’s albums
Terry
May 30, 2012 @ 7:01 pm
So glad that “The Vision of Love” is moving up the charts. Kris Allen’s cd “Thank You Camellia” is also getting great reviews and it deserves it. I liked his first cd a lot but this one is even better with no filler-all great songs, several of which could be pop hits. Get it if you haven’t already done so.
Ellen Radeloff
May 30, 2012 @ 10:48 am
Absolutely LOVE Haley Reinhart’s debut album ‘LISTEN UP!”. So original & well done!
I just purchased it @ Wal-Mart and I hope HALEY receives the ‘kudos’ she deserves for this effort!!. Hopefully, she will get more ‘airtime’ on radio stations nationwide, as some of these songs are fantastic for SUMMERTIME listening……… Congratulations to Ms.Haley Reinhart
Halien4Life
May 30, 2012 @ 1:16 am
Thanks for supporting Haley and Kris. Haley’s album is excellent and has received outstanding reviews from the New York Times and Entertainment Weekly, not to mention Idolhead Ed — hope everyone will check out Listen Up.