2011–2013: Listen Up! and other projects After her elimination, Reinhart had reportedly signed to
Interscope Records, as per the implication of
AI executive producer and director
Nigel Lythgoe's
tweet, which read: "Jimmy played me a song for Haley's record yesterday. Let's hope all the people that are professing love buy it and give her a great start." On May 28, 2011, Reinhart and the other
American Idol top 4 performed at the opening of the new
Microsoft Store at
Lenox Square Mall in Atlanta, Georgia. On June 2, 2011, Reinhart was interviewed on
Live with Regis and Kelly. She performed "House of The Rising Sun" on the show. On June 17, 2011,
TVLine released an interview between Reinhart and Michael Slezak. They discussed her life before
Idol, her "cannon fodder" edit on the show, her unfair treatment by the judges, her unique song choices that became known as "some of the best on
Idol ever", and her future. Slezak crowned her TVLine's favorite Season 10 contestant and thanked her for "kicking ass" and being "a risk-taker and awesome". In less than a week, it garnered more responses than any other article on the site. Reinhart, along with the rest of the Top 11, toured the country as a part of the
American Idols LIVE! Tour 2011, which ended on September 10, 2011. Reinhart, along with fellow contestants
Scotty McCreery,
Lauren Alaina, and
James Durbin, released a Walmart Exclusive EP with her highlights from season 10 on American Idol. The tracks feature some of her popular performances such as "House of the Rising Sun" and "Bennie and the Jets" as well as a previously unreleased recording of "You Oughta Know". Reinhart's EP debuted at number 37 on the
Billboard 200 with sales of 14,000. On July 26, 2011, it was confirmed that Reinhart signed to
19/
Interscope Records. Reinhart spent 2011 and early 2012 working on her debut album, which she described as R&B/soul music with jazzy influences. For her debut album
Listen Up!, Reinhart stated that she wanted to have an "organic" feel to it, stating, "I want it to be real and I want it to have substance. Depth on different levels is so important to me...I want people to be able to run away with my melodies and get lost in them and take the lyrics and be able to relate to them." She wrote or co-wrote the majority of the tracks on the album. The official video was released on November 15, 2011. The
Idol duo performed "Baby, It's Cold Outside" and The Beatles's "
All My Loving" in The Magnificent Mile Lights Festival and on Windy City Live in Chicago. Additionally, she performed an acoustic version of "
Wild Horses" with
Slash and
Myles Kennedy on February 18, 2012, at the Power of Love Gala for
Muhammad Ali. The first single of her debut album, "
Free", was produced by
Busbee and released on March 20, 2012. To promote the single, she performed "Free" and two other songs from her album, "Wasted Tears" and "Hit the Ground Running" at various venues. The promotional events included a release concert at the
Hard Rock Cafe in Hollywood and a TV guest spot on the "Blue Ivy" episode of
90210. She also performed the single at the
National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade in May 2012. The single reached number 104 on the
Billboard Hot 100 and number 26 on the
Adult Top 40. "Free" achieved some success in the Philippines, as well. Reinhart's debut album
Listen Up! was released on May 22, 2012 and debuted at number 17 on the Billboard 200, with 20,000 copies sold.
Listen Up! was highly praised by critics for its retro sound and neo-soul, funk, and jazz influences. As of 2016,
Listen Up! has sold 77,000 copies. "Free" was used as the goodbye anthem for the ninth season of
So You Think You Can Dance, while "Undone" was featured in
Step Up Revolution and sung by Rachel Hale in the Hollywood Rounds on the
twelfth season of
American Idol. In June 2012, Reinhart participated in the
Taco Bell All-Star Legends and Celebrity Softball Game, which aired after the
2012 Major League Baseball Home Run Derby. During the same month, she was also featured on a duet of "
Hit the Road Jack" on Casey Abrams'
self-titled debut album. On August 3, 2012, Reinhart performed songs from her debut album backed by her family on instrumentation and backup vocals at the 2012
Lollapalooza festival, becoming the first
American Idol contestant to achieve the feat. In October 2012, she performed several jazz songs at Carnegie Hall with
Irvin Mayfield. At the end of 2012, Reinhart was dropped from Interscope Records, supposedly due to poor album sales and chart performance; however, the official reason remains undisclosed. In January 2013, Reinhart was the Critics' Choice performer on the second episode of the
NBC series
Real Music Live. She performed "Oh My!" and then later joined the announcers for an interview in which she detailed how her life had changed since her run on
Idol. Later in 2013, Reinhart traveled to Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia and held a mini promotional concert for the
twelfth season of
American Idol. In Jakarta, Reinhart was a musical guest on the
X Factor Indonesia singing "
Bennie and the Jets". One of the songs she wrote, "Love Not War", was leaked online in May 2014. A song Reinhart originally co-wrote for
Listen Up!, "Get Yourself Together", was recorded by
The Voice finalist
Christina Grimmie for her 2013 album,
With Love. 2014–2015: EP promotion, Postmodern Jukebox, viral recognition, and F Is for Family , and Dylan Chambers at Room 5 Lounge in Los Angeles, 2014 Reinhart announced that work had begun on an EP in 2013. Reinhart began an
Indiegogo campaign in February 2014 to fund a music video for her new single, "Show Me Your Moves". In April, her song "Listen", later included in her second studio album, was used for a
Showtime miniseries called
Years of Living Dangerously. The Indiegogo campaign to fund the release of her music video became fully funded during the same month. The single and video were released on July 30, 2014. She was joined on several occasions by Casey Abrams, as well as well-known songwriters Dylan Chambers and
BC Jean, who provided back-up instrumentation and vocals during her performances. On November 13, 2014, Reinhart performed with Irvin Mayfield and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra at the
House of Blues in
New Orleans, where she provided vocals for jazz versions of classic rock songs from Led Zeppelin,
Nirvana and
Queen. performing, June 2014 In January 2015, Reinhart performed a comedy routine in Los Angeles at IO West Comedy Club for
Mo Collins's improv show "Mo and Tell". She recalled a horrifying airplane experience as she attempted to leave Los Angeles and fly back to Chicago to visit her family for Christmas the December prior. Reinhart collaborated with Casey Abrams again in 2015 for his music video, "Great Bright Morning", as well as for the songs "Cougartown" and "Never Knew What Love Can Do", which were featured on Abram's
EP,
Tales from the Gingerbread House, that was released on January 29, 2016. Throughout 2015, Reinhart collaborated with
Postmodern Jukebox, which produces vintage-styled covers of recent pop songs. Her initial video with the band was a cover video of Tove Lo's "
Habits". Two months later, a cover of Meghan Trainor's "
All About That Bass" was released, in which Reinhart sang alongside fellow vocalists
Morgan James and
Ariana Savalas. In April, Reinhart and Postmodern Jukebox released a cover of Radiohead's "
Creep", which obtained critical acclaim and stayed at the number one position on the Billboard Digital Jazz Songs chart for several weeks. It spent 58 consecutive weeks on Billboard's Jazz digital charts. The cover was also included in
People's list of "The 9 Best Viral Cover Videos of 2015". As of November 2021, this cover has over 100,000,000 views and is the most-watched video on the channel. In May 2015, Postmodern Jukebox released Reinhart's fourth cover with the band, "
Lovefool", which received critical acclaim. In July, Reinhart was featured in her fifth collaboration with
Scott Bradlee, a
Marilyn Monroe-style cover of
Britney Spears's hit song "
Oops!... I Did It Again". Her sixth collaboration came in August with a
New Orleans-style cover of
The White Stripes's iconic song "
Seven Nation Army". Reinhart toured with the group throughout North America, Europe, and Australia for several months, starting in the summer of 2015. Before going on tour, Reinhart recorded the tracks for a six-song EP,
Better, at
Westlake Recording Studios, which was subsequently delayed and expanded into an
LP. On July 4, Reinhart performed her cover of "Creep" on the
Josh Wolf Show with Postmodern Jukebox. Later in July, she opened for The Rigs at
The Troubadour in
West Hollywood, California, performing covers as well as original material from
Better. In early August, Reinhart and Abrams performed as the main stage act at the "Jazz in the Pines" festival in
Idyllwild, California. They collaborated on cover songs as well as on original compositions from each singer's respective discography. On November 30, 2015, Reinhart joined Josh Wolf, this time as a guest on the ninth episode of his Fairly Normal Podcast, where she discussed her life and her current projects. In late 2015, Reinhart gained widespread recognition when her cover of "
Can't Help Falling in Love" was used in an
Extra Gum commercial, "The Story of Sarah & Juan", the advertisement first began circulating on Facebook before a full version of the song was released separately through YouTube. In total, the single has sold 200,000 units and has been streamed more than 200,000,000 times on
Spotify, reaching the number one spot on the streaming service's Global Viral chart. Meanwhile, as of January 2017, the video has amassed 20,000,000 views on YouTube and 92,000,000 views on Facebook. The song was certified Platinum on July 31, 2023, by the
Recording Industry Association of America, indicating 1,000,000 units sold. Additionally, the video was a candidate in the YouTube Ads of the Year contest for 2015, and it won for the category "TheYoutubeAd That Gives You Feels". Reinhart was credited with "bringing the classic back to the
Adult Contemporary Chart" when the single debuted at number 25 on the
Billboard AC chart dated January 16, 2016. With this debut, her cover became the seventh version of the song to chart on the AC since
Elvis Presley's original release in 1962 and the first version to chart since
UB40's
reggae interpretation in 1993. Reinhart also won a Silver Lion alongside
Wrigley Company at the 2016
Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in the entertainment category of "Cross Channel Brand Experience" for the placement of her song in the commercial. On September 28, 2016, Reinhart's cover won gold at the
Clio Awards for "Best Use of Music" in the "Short Form Film" category. Reinhart continued to expand her catalog and her notability in the concluding months of the year. On October 26, 2015, Reinhart paid tribute to
Billie Holiday at Philadelphia Music Alliance's Walk of Fame Gala by singing her rendition of "God Bless the Child" alongside
The Roots and
Erykah Badu.
Dionne Warwick presented Holliday with a posthumous award prior to Reinhart's performance.
Jimmy Fallon hosted the sold-out event, which honored The Roots and several other local music legends who were inductees into the 2015 Walk of Fame. Reinhart recorded a Christmas song, "Santa, I Just Want You," for the opening credits of the
Hallmark Channel original movie
Crown for Christmas, which aired on November 27, 2015. The song was written by the film's director,
Alex Zamm, and his writing partner
Alex Geringas. It also appeared on the duo's Christmas EP,
Holiday-o-Rama, Vol. 1 (Christmas Collection). Specifically, Reinhart's character has been praised for providing a true focal point for the series and for the humor conveyed during his frequent inappropriate and awkward experiences. Matt Fowler of
IGN opined that Reinhart's Bill Murphy provides the series' best laughs. Reinhart also contributed a cover of "
O Holy Night" for the sixth episode of the series, "O Holy Moly Night".
2016: Better, Better Tour, and other projects In January 2016, Reinhart was featured alongside fellow season ten
Idol alum Jacob Lusk and season 14 alum Adanna Duru in the "Orchestra of People" video for Casey Abrams's song "Never Knew What Love Can Do". It was announced on February 5, 2016, that Reinhart would be returning to
American Idol for its Farewell Season. She was featured on the February 18 episode mentoring as well as singing duets with two contestants from the season's Top 24 semi-finalists. In an interview with Juliette Miranda of
The Unwritable Rant podcast, Reinhart expressed the possibility of a radio promotion tour for "Can't Help Falling in Love" to open up the song to a wider audience, due to its viral success and its positive performance on the AC charts. Reinhart performed at The Hard Rock Cafe in Denver on February 17 for Mix 100. She performed at
Mix 96.9's Broken Hearts Ball concert event in
Scottsdale, Arizona on February 19 and at the Acoustic Cafe for
96.5 Tic FM in
Hartford, Connecticut on March 14. In March 2016, Reinhart signed a deal with talent agency
ICM Partners, maintaining her previous contract with Ole, as well. Reinhart was a featured performer for Pet-A-Palooza at
Sunset Park in
Paradise, Nevada on April 9, 2016. The event was sponsored by
Mix 94.1 radio station out of
Henderson, Nevada. Subsequently, on June 16, 2016, Reinhart's eighth collaboration with the musical collective was released, a cover of
Soundgarden's 1994 single "
Black Hole Sun".
Bloody Disgusting highlighted the release of the video and noted that "there is a wonderful mystery in this version that nods to the original while making it 100% its own." ;
Better album and tour Although initially conveyed as an EP, Reinhart expanded
Better into a full-length LP, which served as her second studio album. The album was released on April 29, 2016. She described
Better as a "sultry" mix of funk and rock with a soulful foundation that is crafted to inspire self-confidence and independence in young women, especially through the title track and lead single, "
Better".
Better debuted at number 22 on Billboard's
Independent Albums chart dated May 21, 2016 and sold 7,500 units in its first two weeks of release. Her pianist, Jacob Luttrell, served as the tour's opening act. On September 9, 2016, it was announced that the European leg of Reinhart's Better Tour would be postponed until spring of 2017, with some dates rescheduled for May and June and many others cancelled due to rescheduling conflicts. Reinhart confirmed in September 2016 that she would be in the studio recording new music before her European Tour in May 2017. The album was produced by Reinhart and John Burk, President of
Concord Records.
Mike Merritt and Mike Shapiro provided backing instrumentation for the album alongside Postmodern Jukebox's Scott Bradlee, who played piano, and Reinhart's father, Harry, who once again provided guitar. The album, ''
What's That Sound?'', was released September 22, 2017 through Concord Records and features 11 covers of 1960s classics with 3 original songs. Reinhart described the project as an homage to songs and bands that influenced her childhood and her career. The album's lead single, "
Baby It's You" was released June 16, 2017 alongside the official music video. The album's first promotional single, "
The Letter", was released in a special video preview on July 13, 2017. The album's second single "
For What It's Worth" was released through an exclusive lyric video premiere on August 10, 2017, preceding a wide release on August 11, 2017. "Let's Start", one of three original tracks on the album, was released on September 15, 2017, simultaneously with the song's music video. The album debuted at 67 on Billboard's
Top Album Sales chart, for the week dated October 14, 2017. In support of the album, Reinhart embarked on an 18-show fall tour throughout the US, commencing October 22, 2017 and concluding November 18. Also in 2017, Reinhart reprised her voice role as Bill Murphy in the second season of
F is for Family, which was released May 30, 2017 and contains ten episodes. She was upped to a series regular for the second season. Reinhart was a featured collaborator on Irvin Mayfield and
Kermit Ruffins's album
A Beautiful World, released October 13, 2017. She sings on the track "
Don't Worry, Be Happy" alongside
Jason Marsalis,
Cyril Neville, and Glen David Andrews, and is the main vocalist on the title track "Beautiful World [for Imani]". She also provides uncredited vocals on the song "Mystic" and backing vocals throughout the album. Reinhart expressed interest in taking acting and improv classes after the conclusion of her fall 2017 tour, indicating her desire to try new things and expand beyond her voice role in
F is for Family. She also expressed her desire to put out a 1970s-inspired record, a jazz record, or to continue to release original material.
2018–2019: Lo-Fi Soul, collaborations, and EP releases On May 31, 2018,
Refinery29 exclusively debuted the music video for Reinhart's single "Last Kiss Goodbye" before its official release on June 1, 2018. Reinhart described the
bossa nova-inspired, low-fi pop song as having a raw, stripped down, summery feel that allows her to "move into [her] own light as an artist." The single charted at number 15 on Billboard's Jazz Digital Songs chart. On July 7, 2018, Reinhart was an opening performer for headlining act
Steven Tyler at the 31st Annual
Ribfest in
Naperville, Illinois. On September 23, she debuted new, original tracks during her performance at the "Live in the Vineyard East" concert event which was held at the Blue Ridge Estate Vineyard and Winery. Reinhart joined jazz pianist
Jeff Goldblum as a featured singer on his debut album of jazz standards,
The Capitol Studios Sessions, which was released November 9, 2018. She features on the tracks "
My Baby Just Cares for Me" and "
Gee Baby (Ain't I Good to You)". "My Baby Just Cares for Me" was released as the album's second single, accompanied by a music video released on September 25, which features Goldblum and Reinhart performing the song live. On October 22, 2018, Reinhart presented the Man of Style Award to Goldblum at the 2018
InStyle Awards at the
Getty Center in Los Angeles. She sang "Happy Birthday" to him on stage before she gave him the award. The pair performed "My Baby Just Cares for Me" on
Jimmy Kimmel Live! on November 8 to promote the album's release. Reinhart teamed up with Dutch
EDM duo
Vicetone on their single "
Something Strange", which was released alongside its video on November 2, 2018. The song is described as an upbeat, pop-centric track, with a strong
Avicii influence. The single reached a peak at number 23 on Billboard's
Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart. Reinhart reprised her starring role as Bill Murphy in the third season of
F is for Family, released on November 30, 2018. Additionally, she sang the National Anthem before the SDCCU Holiday Bowl at
SDCCU Stadium in
San Diego on December 31, 2018. On September 14, 2018, Reinhart released "Don't Know How to Love You", the lead single from her self-produced fourth studio album,
Lo-Fi Soul, which was released independently on March 27, 2019. The title track, "Lo-Fi Soul", was released as the album's second single on February 8, 2019, with the official music video, composed of home footage, debuting on February 15 exclusively through
AltPress. The third single, "Honey, There's the Door" was released with its official music video on March 8, 2019. On April 11, 2019, Reinhart released a music video for the album track "Shook", which was filmed in LA's RagDoll Pink Palace. In support of the album, Reinhart embarked on the Lo-Fi Soul Tour, starting in April 2019 and running for 18 shows. She extended the tour with additional shows on the east coast starting in mid-October, including her first headlining show in
Toronto. All 2020 tour dates were delayed and eventually cancelled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. Also in 2019, Reinhart partnered with
Mazda for a
Mazda3 advertisement campaign, "Dream Bigger", in which she sings a featured cover of "
Dreams" by
The Cranberries. The commercial debuted during the
NCAA championship game on April 8, 2019. Reinhart released a full-length version of the song on May 10. Following the release of this cover, Reinhart released
Bulletproof on June 14, 2019, a 3-track EP featuring covers of "
Bulletproof", "
It Ain't Over 'Till It's Over", and "
You Send Me". On June 29, Reinhart headlined the fifth annual "Rock the Runway" concert at
Chicago Executive Airport in Wheeling, and on August 29, she joined
Michael Feinstein at the
Ravinia Festival in
Highland Park, Illinois. On October 31, 2019, Reinhart released "
Santa Baby", her first solo holiday cover song, followed by "
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" on November 9 and "
The Christmas Song" on November 18. On December 25, 2020, Reinhart made her film acting debut in
Robert Rodriguez's science fiction
superhero film We Can Be Heroes. The film, which follows the children of superheroes during an alien invasion, features an ensemble cast including
Priyanka Chopra and
Christian Slater and was released via Netflix.
2020–present: Singles and forthcoming EP Reinhart released her first live single, "Change", on January 3, 2020. The song was recorded at
Mercury Lounge in New York City during her 2019 east coast tour. On April 21, 2020, another single was released, a studio cover of Janis Joplin's "
Piece of My Heart", which she had previously performed live on
American Idol in 2011. Reinhart will return as a regular cast member for the fourth season of
F is for Family, which will be released June 12, 2020. She is also scheduled to perform at
ABC 7 Chicago's Virtual
Pride event, which will take place June 20 and 21. ==Artistry==