Why Hailey Lost

[CarmenSandiego]

Yesterday, I took a look at the first singer to fail to make the Top 20, K-Blocks, and found many reasons why she lost.  Today, I’ll be looking at a contestant who was in Group 1, Hailey Mia.  A lot of people in IDF wanted her to go far and were disappointed but not surprised when she was cut in the Top 20.  But why wasn’t her elimination a huge surprise?  As with K-Blocks, I’ll use the rules that American Idol contestants should follow in order to find out what Hailey did right, what she did wrong and why Hailey lost.

 

The first rule states that a contestant should show both singing and performing talent.  So how did Hailey do?  Better than K-Blocks but maybe not quite good enough, at least with performance skills.  On IDF, while Zoey gave her a 3 and Sublymonal gave her a 5.5, most gave her scores above 6.  I gave her an 8 and thought that she did a good job.  However, the judges noted that her performance skills could use improvement, while MJSBigBlog said that the band swallowed her up.  Thus Hailey had some difficulty with the first rule, mainly with performance skills.

 

What about the second rule, which states that song choice is key?  I also think that Hailey had problems here.  Denton Davidson from Goldderby said that “She’s All I Wanna Be” might not be the best song choice if she wanted to make an impact on viewers seeing her for the first time.  Thus Hailey struggled with this rule.

 

The third rule states that you should be consistently great or at least improve consistently.  Hailey was shown very little but from what we saw she was at least consistently very good.  But the Hawaii performance was the time for her to be great, and she was only very good.  Thus Hailey stumbled with this rule as well.

 

It seems that Hailey did well enough with the fourth rule, which states that you need to be confident.  Hailey had been on The Voice, so she had enough experience to be confident about her vocals at least.  Unfortunately, this wasn’t enough to save her but she still did okay with it, so I’ll move on.

 

The first rule that I think Hailey really failed in was the fifth rule, which states that contestants must have a strong artistic identity.  Hailey was so young that she probably didn’t know what her artistic identity was beyond being a pretty girl with a big voice who could sing pop.  Thus Hailey screwed up with this rule.

 

The sixth rule states that contestants must remember that they are a package.  Unfortunately, it seems that Hailey had nothing that would help her package herself beyond being a pretty girl with a big voice.  This is probably why she wasn’t featured much until the Top 24, and it definitely hurt her.  Thus Hailey struck out on this rule as well.

 

At least Hailey doesn’t seem to have had any problems with the seventh rule, which advises contestants to take any advice given and follow it.  I think that Hailey did try to take the advice given by mentor Tori Kelly, but she wasn’t very successful.  Still, she followed this rule, so I’ll move on.

 

 The final rule states that contestants should gather and sustain a fan base.  Unfortunately, Hailey was featured very little, so she was behind the 8-ball in gathering a fan base, unlike country singers, and her performance, while very good, just wasn’t going to help her gain more fans.  Worse, she performed early on in the show, and it’s likely that she was forgotten by the end of the show.  Thus Hailey fouled up this rule as well.

 

Hailey probably should’ve waited a few more years before trying out for American Idol.  She was a very good singer but she was too young to know what her artistic identity might be and she didn’t know how to package herself to start gathering a fan base.  Thus, she fell behind the 8-ball and in her first performance, she chose a song that couldn’t help her stand out.  Hailey was just too inexperienced as an artist and that is why Hailey lost.

Edited April 17 by CarmenSandiego

[m1key]

Great writeup! This is going to be a controversial take but I feel like people will try to blame her elimination on the lack of screentime, but I feel like her generic/poor song choices are why she didn't get that screen time in the first place 

[StarWalker1]

3 minutes ago, m1key said:

Great writeup! This is going to be a controversial take but I feel like people will try to blame her elimination on the lack of screentime, but I feel like her generic/poor song choices are why she didn't get that screen time in the first place 

we can blame both  

[CarmenSandiego]

5 minutes ago, m1key said:

Great writeup! This is going to be a controversial take but I feel like people will try to blame her elimination on the lack of screentime, but I feel like her generic/poor song choices are why she didn't get that screen time in the first place 

I can see that.  Her generic song choices probably are the result of a lack of artistic identity, and those two things are probably why she didn’t get enough screen time in the first place.

[TeamAudra]

8 minutes ago, m1key said:

Great writeup! This is going to be a controversial take but I feel like people will try to blame her elimination on the lack of screentime, but I feel like her generic/poor song choices are why she didn't get that screen time in the first place 

I agree, but I also have other critiques. She needs to develop some artistry. She has the vocal talent, but I’m not sure she knows what to do with it. She also has this voice crack problem that she needs to get a handle on. Maybe that will just come with age. 

[Gustavo527]

I see people talk about her "song choices" in plural, but i honestly think the only particulary "bad" one was the Tate McRae's song?? I mean, the week when she reached her peak of popularity on The Voice, she sang a Sia's song. 

 

Maybe just pop music is her style, but in a competition, what she needed to do was stick to pop ballads. That's what got most of her success on The Voice with songs like "Jar of Hearts", "Elastic Heart" and "Someone You Loved". That songs showcased her vocals very well and helped her to advance. "idontwannabeyouanymore" also showcased really well her vocals but i guess Billie is just way to "quirky" for Minivan to get. Oh, and i'm sure if the vote in the Playoffs wouldn't have been based on teams, she would have get a PV with "traitor".

 

"She Is All I Wanna Be" being an up-tempo song, didn't showcase her vocals very well, and it surely didn't help that the band was too loud.

Edited April 14 by Gustavo527

[Elliott]

On 4/12/2024 at 11:12 PM, CarmenSandiego said:

Hailey probably should’ve waited a few more years before trying out for American Idol. 

I’ve felt this way about pretty much every minor on Idol except for Allison and Casey.

[CarmenSandiego]

11 hours ago, Elliott said:

I’ve felt this way about pretty much every minor on Idol except for Allison and Casey.

Yeah, a lot of the minors probably were too green, which is why I think that Triston will eventually have the same problem.

[AngelaKD]

“She should have waited” makes no sense for someone who already came in 4th on a singing show.

 

She lost because she was a cypher to the AI audience. She received airtime that was exclusively short snippets of her singing with no personal content. Idol viewers will not vote for you unless they feel they know you.

[CarmenSandiego]

3 minutes ago, AngelaKD said:

“She should have waited” makes no sense for someone who already came in 4th on a singing show.

 

She lost because she was a cypher to the AI audience. She received airtime that was exclusively short snippets of her singing with no personal content. Idol viewers will not vote for you unless they feel they know you.

The Voice isn’t the same as American Idol, so that’s why I gave the advice.

[Carrie_On]

Her lack of airtime did her no favors but let's remember that Hawaii's performances were taped all the way back in February, I believe, so she may have gotten a better edit on the show if she would've killed that performance. Instead she chose a song that goes nowhere and didn't establish herself as even a dark horse. She came across as a pretty young girl who can sorta sing pop songs well, so the editors/producers really had no reason to focus on her much in Hollywood Week. Even the judges sounded like they were on the fence about putting her in the Top 24, when Katy told her "Alive is what sealed the deal for us."

 

She's a strong singer and I get her appeal but I don't think she was robbed. We've seen people with a nonexistent edit go far on the show before. People like Siobhan Magnus, Kris Allen, Melissa McGhee, Jason Castro, and even Kelly Clarkson (let's face it, they wanted Justin or Tamyra to win at first.) It's because they came out and won people over. Then you have the people like Amy Krebs, Melinda Lira, Garrett Haley, and now Hailey Mia who couldn't overcome their fodder edit because they made no impact during the first voting round.

Edited April 15 by Carrie_On

[Kitty Sammy 463]

I agree that her main issue was her Top 24 Song Choice. If she had chosen a better song, she could’ve gotten up to 8th place.