"Free" is the debut single by ''

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'' 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 r ...

. It was released on March 20, 2012 through

Interscope Records Interscope Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M imprint. Founded in late 1990 by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field as a $20 million joint venture with Atlantic Records of Warner Mu ...

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.

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'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

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. Sims set the video in a vintage 1950s

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called Cadillac Jack's Cafe in

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. 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 ''

.'' 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 ''

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'' 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