Singer Haley Johnsen: American Idol 11 (2012) Spoilers and Predictions
Haley Johnsen is a singer competing on the 11th season of American Idol. According to spoiler site TheIdolPad, she has made it all the way to the Top 24, which is the first live voting round. According to the same source, Haley's Las Vegas audition group also got a standing ovation. That group consisted of Haley, Eben Franckewitz, Reed Grimm and Elise Testone.
Based on videos posted online, Haley appears to be some hybrid of a indie or folk singer. She has a very pretty voice and a nice vibrato. However, to be superior in her style of soft singing, you need either a magnificent vocal tone or great artistry. Although pretty, Haley's vocal tone does not seem to be special. As far as her artistry, she seems to carry a nice tune on her guitar.
I would place Haley Johnsen's odds of winning as very low unless she can show more power in her singing or come up with more creative arrangements of songs. Simply taking a song like she did "Rolling in the Deep" and turning it into almost a folk song is just about the opposite of what is going to work in terms of getting votes. You have to breathe life into a song, not take the life out of it. Haley's rendition of "Rolling in the Deep" did just that -- take a vibrant song and make it boring.
With that said, we don't really know whether Haley can show more power than she has done so far. But she is toast if she tries to pull that "soft singer" bit every week. This has been proven many times recently. Drew Ryniewicz was likely the favorite heading into the voting rounds on the US X Factor 1. She quickly lost steam picking or turning everything into a slow, sappy ballad on a weekly basis. Janet Devlin did the same thing on the UK X Factor this past season. This is simply a recipe for failure.
Johnsen looks very marketable and may be successful after the show. This article has nothing to do with that. But if she persists in slowing down songs, I predict people will get bored, and she will fizzle out around the Top 6 if Haley does make the Top 12. She should try to mix it up some and show some different gears to build a bigger fanbase,which will give her a better chance of winning the 11th season of American Idol.
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