Song Review: Bianca Ryan – “Hallelujah”

Bianca Ryan released her latest single, “Hallelujah”, on October 9th.  As an 11-year-old, Ryan won the first season of America’s Got Talent (AGT) back in 2006.  After her win, she released her first album Bianca Ryan which sold over 200,000 copies. This was followed by 2 Eps and 8 singles, the last being “Say Something” in 2019.

Last year Ryan appeared on America’s Got Talent The Champions, a spin off which brought back previous winners and finalists from the original show. She performed an emotional and dynamic rendition of “Say Something” bringing all 4 judges to their feet. Simon Cowell gave her a double thumbs up and commented “I think without you we may not have been sitting here today” and “That’s what we call a moment”. She announced that night that she went through 2 vocal surgeries and had to completely relearn how to sing all over again due to a virus that left her vocal cord paralyzed.

“Hallelujah” was written by Leonard Cohen and has been covered and performed by numerous performers from Jeff Buckley to Brett Young to Pentatonix to Theory of a Deadman.  My personal favorite has always been Rufus Wainwright’s cover.  Ryan’s version is a powerful, more contemporary version in the style of a Christina Aguilera. It’s easy to determine whether a performer has hit the mark with “Hallelujah”.  If it doesn’t evoke an emotional response from the listener, then it’s a swing and miss.  Ryan hits it out of the park with her rendition.  It’s an emotional performance that touched my soul and brought tears to my eyes.

Bianca states about “Hallelujah”, “I’m just so excited to finally have no boundaries and limitations musically and vocally. I’ve waited years for this moment, everyone has really; my family, my friends, fans, past teachers and schoolmates, industry execs… literally everyone – to be the artist I’ve dreamed about being since I was a little girl. Hallelujah was a song that I’ve wanted to sing for years and I actually wanted to sing it on America’s Got Talent The Champions but we ended up going in a different direction. Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah is the ultimate classic and has been done by so many of the greats and I really wanted to put my spin on it and join the club. I feel like this song is an agglomeration of everything I have worked for vocally in one song. I really wanted to align my progress and my heart in a song and Hallelujah is just that. It’s one of many songs I’ve wanted to always release, so this new journey is very freeing for me”. 

This is one of the better covers of “Hallelujah” that I have heard.  The song is available now on iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify, and Amazon Music. For more on Bianca, check out the sites below.

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Post by Scott Raymer (Website | Instagram | Facebook)

What do you think about this song? Comment below.

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