_{By Mitchell Tousley}

This summer, the Utah music scene had a notable and rather unusual moment in the limelight. After prominently appearing in the season two finale of HBO’s The Rehearsal, UVU musical theatre student Isabella Henao performed “Bring Me To Life” by Evanescence on Jimmy Kimmel Live! The late-night host brought Nathan Fielder on as a guest to discuss the new season of his acclaimed show. As a treat for fans of Fielder’s show and also for Kimmel’s viewers, Isabella Henao performed the same song that was featured in the climax of The Rehearsal. 

Henao is an experienced vocalist and performer with years of experience leading up to her audition for Wings of Voice, the aviation-themed singing competition held within The Rehearsal. To any readers unfamiliar with The Rehearsal or Nathan Fielder’s larger body of work, Fielder created a singing competition to give airline pilots more experience giving criticism and speaking up in order to avoid miscommunication in the cockpit. If these cockpit miscommunications can be avoided, that would result in far less aviation disasters. That’s Fielder’s theory, at least. The Rehearsal‘s show within the show is very characteristic of the complex webs Fielder often creates in his work.

Henao’s success on the show has led to other opportunities, including a partnership with Bagel Bites. I got to chat with Isabella a couple weeks ago. Here is our conversation:

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Mitchell: Are you tired of Bagel Bites yet? 

Isabella: No, will never be, never. What sucks though, is that I’ve been trying to be better with my diet. When they reached out, I was like, oh, you guys are evil. You guys are evil.

Mitchell: How did you hear about Wings of Voice? Had you auditioned for other shows before this one?

Isabella: I’m very familiar with auditioning, of course, just as a theater student. Specifically Wings of Voice, they emailed my mom because I had auditioned for America’s Got Talent, which is the pool that they got people’s information from. I was a minor when I auditioned for AGT, so I did it under my mom’s information and so. They emailed my mom and she then verified that it was a legitimate email and then she forwarded it to me and that’s how I auditioned. I just sent in a video audition.

Mitchell: When they reached out to you, was it from “so-and-so@wingsofvoice.com?”

Isabella: The producer’s name was on the email address. We looked her up to make sure she was a real person in the industry because you know, when you are a singer or trying to be an actor when you’re younger, a lot of people will take advantage of that. You have to be really cautious about who you’re working with. We found that they were actually working on a production for HBO and were real, and they weren’t asking for money or anything, so we were like, “Okay, let’s do it. We’ll just go and see if this is real.” When they contacted me after my video audition, they invited me to come in person to an actual HBO lot.

Mitchell: That’s very cool. So then you get there and it’s Nathan Fielder’s world, which always feels like it’s real, but also not.

Isabella: It was so strange. I went with my mom because she’s my road dog.

And yeah, on the logo it said “Wings of Voice” but my mom and I were like, “Why is this the American Idol logo with The Voice font on it? That’s very weird.” It was definitely a little suspicious. Then it was a test screening, but having experience and knowing the industry and how things work when you’re filming and all the red lights were on – and I was like, “Okay, they’re getting this footage, this isn’t just a test. This is actual footage.” So yeah, it was very strange. 

Mitchell: And of course you’re auditioning for pilots, not necessarily professionals. 

Isabella: I thought that was the bit, yeah, but it was crazy to learn, you know? I didn’t find out about that until the show aired. I had no idea that they were real pilots the whole time. I thought they were music industry professionals.

Mitchell: Oh, funny. I’ve always wondered as a Fielder fan, how he creates all these super complex situations where there are so many deviations from the core thing. I also wonder what the experience is like for the people who get brought in, like the singers or the random people he finds on Craigslist to participate. When you watch the show, it feels very well constructed, but it’s just got to be so much to keep track of.

Isabella: For me, I just took everything with a grain of salt. Plus, it was my first TV production that I had been on. So I had no idea how things were supposed to operate, but everything felt normal to me. It felt legit. It’s hard to explain because it honestly did work really well, and it was very smooth. As far as knowing how I would be used, I had no idea.

Mitchell: What did you think when you were auditioning? Which public domain song did you choose?

Isabella: I auditioned with “House of the Rising Sun,” and then they asked me to do a second song. The pilot that I auditioned for, she was really fighting for me. She said, “I’m not supposed to do this, but can you just sing another song for me?” So I sing “Star Spangled Banner,” and she’s like “I’m not supposed to be doing this, but here’s a golden ticket for you.”

Mitchell: In your final performance in the show, you start off playing the piano. Do you play any other instruments? Is it just the voice and piano? What else do you do?

Isabella: I play the piano. I took lessons for many years. I play the ukulele. During COVID, I actually picked the recorder back up. So, the recorder and the cowbell. My dad plays the cowbell, and he taught me growing up.

Mitchell: That’s an interesting assortment of instruments.

Isabella: It’s just so random.

Mitchell: So you auditioned and you won. There were about 50 total contestants, however. Are you still in touch with any of those people? What was the dynamic like on set?

Isabella: One thing that I just love is hearing music from other people. Being in a space and being able to recognize how much talent you’re surrounded by was incredible. People were bringing their guitars; they had a keyboard in the dressing room backstage area. People were singing all the time, somebody would start playing guitar and be like, “Do you know this song?” and everybody would start joining in. It was just a beautiful experience to hear so much music. I got so many people’s socials because I just love following and keeping up with people. I don’t want to forget about people.

Mitchell: How will you take this win and your performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and further your career with these successes? 

Isabella: I’ve done studio recordings with my a cappella group at UVU, but I haven’t done solo recording quite yet. I need to go to the studio to record stuff for myself and my own original music. I’ve always wanted to do that and now is a great time.

Mitchell: Do you have any interest in getting involved in the independent music scene in Utah?

Isabella: Honestly, I need to release my original music before playing venues. Although I have a feeling that “Bring Me to Life” is gonna be a staple in my repertoire now. But yes, I would love to do that. When I lived in California, I did so many small events and I also performed for seniors. I love performing for the local community.

Mitchell: You’re a musical theater student. Are you planning on being in any upcoming productions that we can plan to see you in? 

Isabella: If they cast me. I’ve been in the program for three years now and they’ve only casted me once … [in] a jazz cabaret. The beginning of my training was in jazz, so it was so much fun. It was really familiar and really comfortable to me, and I loved it. It was awesome.

Mitchell: Wow. I would be very surprised if you continue to not get as many roles in the near future. You mentioned you were trained in jazz, will your original music be jazz? What stuff do you want to make? Or are you still figuring it out? 

Isabella: Well, ironically I’m doing alt rock. I just love that genre. When I was younger, I was a wannabe goth kid. I wanted to be goth so bad. Then I went through my emo phase and I listened to emo music. So when it came down to  what kind of music I wanna write, I have a big voice, a big belt, and then I also have the subtleties with jazz singing. Rock and jazz both have a lot of stylistic freedom that I really like. Whether its how you sing or the notes you choose.

Mitchell: I feel like that’s one of the cool things about both jazz and rock music in different ways where it’s like, do whatever you want.

Isabella: I’ve always felt like  I’ve had to break the rules in a lot of regards. English isn’t my first language, although I mask it very well. When I started singing,  you could hear my accent and that stopped me from a lot of opportunities. But I found ways to incorporate that into my sound. It’s the same thing with my vibrato. When you listen to Colombian singers, vibrato is so integral to it. They told Shakira that her vibrato was horrible. I’ve lost opportunities because of that. But I’ve found ways to control it and use it as a way to break boundaries in the creation of my own style.

You can keep up-to-date with Isabella’s projects and work by following her @isa.gringalatina on most platforms (Instagram, TikTok, etc). Check out her cover of “Bring Me To Life” below!