Haeley Vaughn: "Hopefully more doors will open for me"

The big mystery about Haeley Vaughn was why the judges put her into the Top 24 if they didn’t think her voice was mature enough. And during her conference call with the media, the reporters tried every way they could to get her to admit that contradiction. But Haeley stayed positive, choosing instead to use her call to reach out to the people she’d like to work with in the future.

Here’s some of what she had to say…

On whether the judges gave her conflicting advice: “No, not really. I felt like the judges had really good comments and feedback to give me, and I’ll definitely learn from it and work on the stuff that they told me to work on.”

On whether nerves had an impact: “Oh, yes. The first week was really tough. We were all super nervous and scared and worried about our song choice. The first week, actually, yes, we were all like just freaking out and trying to pick the right songs and make sure that America would like them. And nerves are always going to play a huge factor in what we do on the show.”

On Kara’s comment about her needing more experience: “Yes, I kind of agreed with her. I think that more experience and more time working on my vocals would be good…I think experience is always better for someone, especially since I’m only 16, and this is the first really big thing that I’ve done ever. I’ve never performed in front of millions of people before. I’ve never even performed in front of 100. And so, I think it’s always good to get more experience and work on the things that I need to work on.”

When the question was asked again: “No, I actually kind of agreed with Kara’s comment. I think that a little more time to work on my vocals and get all the technical things worked out would actually help me and I think that I’m going to do that. And have moved forward with my career. Right. Yes. I won’t be able to be on ‘Idol’ again, but I’m sure that there are other things that I can do from here on out. ‘Idol’ was an amazing platform for me and so from here on out I can just work on more things and hopefully, more doors will open for me.”

Haeley finally admitted that it was “surprising” after someone asked again…

On what she’d like to do next: “I love Disney. And so if I was given a chance to work with Disney, I would love it. Miley Cyrus is one of my—like, oh, my gosh, I love her. And so, that’d be awesome. And, yes, country music is definitely my genre, pop country. And playing my guitar is awesome. So yes, if I were given the chance to do that, I would definitely jump on it.”

On whether she’ll go back to school: “I think I might go back to high school, but I think if there’s anything else, like any other doors that will open for me, I don’t know if I’ll go back to high school or if I’ll just do my school online and focus on my career, which is what is really important for me right now. But I’ll definitely finish school.”

Photo Credit: Frank Micelotta/FOX