Haley Reinhart of ‘American Idol’ fame inks deal with Interscope

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Haley Reinhart,the bluesy ingenue who placed third on the past season of ‘American Idol,’ has inked a record deal with Interscope Records and 19 Recordings, a source from the label confirmed to Pop & Hiss on Monday.

The 20-year-old singer, despite making it as far as she did, had a rocky road during her ‘Idol’ run. The panel of judges praised her bold showings of songs from Adele, Alanis Morissette and Elton John but offered her the most criticism for her stage presence -- and she landed in the bottom three four times during the season.

“There are a lot of opinions and it can eat you up. A lot of them are contradictory, and that’s the part that gets me,” Reinhart once said about the constant criticism backstage. “You have to meet in the middle and do what you feel as well. It can be tough.”

Reinhart joins another fan favorite at Interscope, as Pia Toscano recently announced she’d been signed to the label headed by ‘Idol’ mentor Jimmy Iovine. Winner Scotty McCreery and runner-up Lauren Alaina both landed deals with Mercury Nashville -- which, like Interscope, is a subsidiary of the Universal Music Group -- for their respective debut albums.

An official announcement from the label regarding Reinhart’s deal is expected to be released shortly.

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-- Gerrick D. Kennedy

Twitter.com / gerrickkennedy