"Free" is the debut single by ''
American Idol
''American Idol'' is an American singing competition television series created by Simon Fuller, produced by Fremantle North America and 19 Entertainment, and distributed by Fremantle North America. It aired on Fox from June 11, 2002, to Ap ...
''
tenth season third-place finisher
Haley Reinhart
Haley Elizabeth Reinhart (born September 9, 1990) is an American singer, songwriter and actress from Wheeling, Illinois. She first rose to prominence after placing third in the 10th season of ''American Idol''. In July 2011, Reinhart signed a re ...
. It was released on March 20, 2012 through
Interscope Records and serves as the first single from her debut album, ''
Listen Up!''.
Composition
The song is a "mature break-up song", as defined by the singer itself, which tells the story about two people in love whose relationship fails and decide to break-up since it is the best for both.
Critical reception
Critics gave "Free" positive reviews. About.com said "This is clearly a Haley Reinhart record, and her fans will instantly take it to heart." and gave it a rating of 4.5 out of 5.
USA Today
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgi ...
's Brian Mansfield was impressed and the song was picked to be one of the songs in the Playlist in ''USA Today''.
Scott Shetler from PopCrush.com wrote "The track is built around the elegant vocals of Reinhart, who sounds more mature than her twenty-one years Let’s hope so, because ‘Free’ is a song that’s worthy of people’s attention."
Music video
The music video, which was directed by Christopher Sims, saw its video premiere on March 29, 2012 on
VEVO
Vevo ( , an abbreviation for "Video Evolution", stylized as VEVO until 2013) is an American multinational video hosting service, best known for providing music videos to YouTube. The service is also available as an app on selected smart TVs, ...
. Sims set the video in a vintage 1950s
diner called Cadillac Jack's Cafe in
Hollywood,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
. It reached 1,000,000 views in under 2 months. It had accumulated 5.5 million views as of September 17h, 2021.
Live performances
Reinhart performed the single live on the March 22, 2012 episode of ''
American Idol
''American Idol'' is an American singing competition television series created by Simon Fuller, produced by Fremantle North America and 19 Entertainment, and distributed by Fremantle North America. It aired on Fox from June 11, 2002, to Ap ...
.'' She sang the song live for 104.3 MYFM New Music Night. She also performed the single for the March 27 episode of ''
90210'', Right after, she performed the song on
Fox 5's ''
Good Day New York
''Good Day New York'' is a morning show airing on WNYW Fox 5 (channel 5), hosted by Rosanna Scotto and Bianca Peters. It is a Fox owned-and-operated television station in New York City, owned by the Fox Television Stations subsidiary of Fox C ...
'' and appeared on
Conan to perform the single on April 24.
Track listing
*Digital Download
# "Free" – 4:14
Charts
References
{{authority control
2011 songs
2012 debut singles
Songs written by Lucie Silvas
Songs written by busbee
Interscope Records singles