This post contains SPOILERS for The Rehearsal Season 2 on HBO.
The Rehearsal Season 2 chronicles Nathan Fielder’s attempts to understand why aviation accidents happen. According to Fielder, one major factor is that pilots are unwilling to communicate candidly with each other, especially when they disagree or have bad news to deliver.
To test this theory, Fielder used his resources from The Rehearsal to create a fictional(?) aviation-themed singing competition called Wings of Voice. In this competition, pilots judged singers performances, advanced the ones they liked, and were forced to break the bad news to some contestants that they were eliminated. The idea was that by forcing them to break singers’ hearts, the process would reveal something about what it takes to be a good communicator.
I used a “(?)” next to “fictional” above because even though contestants on Wings of Voice were occasionally made the butt of the joke on The Rehearsal and the competition never aired as its own TV show, the winner of the competition still received something of value: the privilege of performing a song for HBO’s audience on national television.
Today I’m speaking with the winner of that competition, Isabella Henao. As a fellow musician, I thought Henao crushed her performance of Evanescence’s “Bring Me To Life” in the culminating moments of season two. And as someone who is endlessly fascinated by how much of Fielder’s stunts are “real,” I was thrilled to get an insider’s perspective on what it’s like to go through Fielder’s shenanigans as they happen. Henao spoke with me about what it was like to go through the audition process, what contestants were actually told about what was happening, what other contestants’ thought about the whole thing, and how being on The Rehearsal changed her life.
This interview has been edited and condensed for brevity and clarity. To listen to a fuller version of the conversation, check out the podcast/video above. If you want to learn more about Isabella, check out her website.
DAVID CHEN: Let's start by talking about how you heard about the opportunity to be on Wings of Voice.
ISABELLA HENAO: Just like most of the other people on the show, I got an email. They reached out to a bunch of us because they had our information through America's Got Talent records. I auditioned when I was 12, because when I was little, I had a belt like an adult does, which is something that kids don’t have usually.
For those who aren't familiar with the musician lingo, what is a belt?
Belting is just a technique of singing where it just comes off a lot more full and pure compared to like when you’re singing with your head voice, which is very light and airy or in your chest, which is what you'll typically hear gospel sung in. Belt is typically associated with musical theater. That's usually where people use it.
So when you were 12 years old, people were like “This girl can sing!” You auditioned for America's Got Talent, and decades later, they still had that information. The producers went to America's Got Talent, and then were like, “Hey, who from the pool might be interested to be on this Wings of Voice show?”
Yeah, as far as I know, they reached out to people that were LA-based. But of course people move and stuff. I actually happened to move in between that time for college. So they emailed my mom because I was a minor when I applied. She forwarded me the email and we were like, “Okay, let's make sure this is legit.” We ran a background check on the person who emailed us and we were like, “Okay, wait, this is legit!”
What was the opportunity presented to you as? Was it called Wings of Voice at the time?
I don’t think it was called Wings of Voice. There's actually screenshots of the email out on Reddit and stuff, but it was like “HBO Looking for New Talent for a New Singing Competition.” And it just said you get the chance to work with a Grammy-winning producer. That was all it said. It was very vague. I filled out the form. I recorded my audition in my room in Utah and it was decent...
Do you remember what what you sang for the audition?
Yeah, I sang “Bad Idea” by Ariana Grande. I'm in a cappella and our a cappella group did a cover of it, so it was kind of different. Usually when you go into these auditions, you want to do something that's different because people are going to go in with the, karaoke track. So I was like, I'm going to do this a cappella version.
Amazing. Tell us about your life and career at the time that you received this inquiry.
I technically had been singing professionally. When I started singing professionally, I actually started during Covid. I was considered an essential worker, actually, because I sang for seniors in senior homes. When the pandemic hit, I was able to get my vaccination along with the first people, social workers and seniors and people that were immune compromised. I got to go perform for senior homes after Covid.
I graduated, I moved to Utah and I stopped singing. I started working regular jobs. I was a floor manager at T-Mobile. And then at the time of me filming and the show, I was working at a security company. I was doing [graveyard shifts]. So while the show was airing and everything, I would watch the episodes literally as they dropped at my job.
You mailed in your audition and then you hear back from them. What was that reach out like?
“Congratulations, you've made it to the next round.” And it was like, “We want to we want you to audition in person.”
Right. So that's when they gather a thousand people in person. What was your feeling at that moment?
I'm so used to hearing “No.” But I always lived by, “Fake it til you make it” and “You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.” I was in Utah and I'm like, well, I don't have a job right now. It's not a big deal. I'll just go. Screw it.
So I drove. Every time I was needed, I drove, which is ten hours.
How many times did you make that trip?
Six to nine times.
Six to nine times? You drove ten hours each way, or round trip?
Round trip. I think I flew one time there and then I drove back. I can't really remember. But it was a lot.
What was the audition like?
Literally exactly what you saw on television was what happened. I auditioned for a pilot. The one that I auditioned for, she wasn't featured in any way. She had me sing two songs. She was really conflicted. When I went in, I wasn’t expecting to hear yes. I've auditioned for these shows in the past. It's very political. And I was very suspicious because, like, the logo is very suspicious. If you've seen American Idol, you know that that was the American Idol logo.
You thought that the Wings of Voice logo resembled American Idol? So you were wondering if this show was a rip-off of another show?
What my biggest fear was, if you've ever heard of WB Superstar, I was scared that's what I was going to be on.
Wow! That is a deep cut. For those who don't know what WB Superstar is, that was a show that was very similarly structured to American Idol. But then at the very end of the show, you find out, “We actually haven't been looking for the best singer. We've been looking for the worst. And so if you've been featured on this show, it means we literally think you suck!” And you were worried it would be that kind of thing?
I've always struggled with imposter syndrome and stuff like that. There's always in the back of my head, I'm like, “What if everyone's lying to me? Like, what if I'm really bad?” I went and I was just like, “This feels really off.”
How did it feel off?
A few things. They told us that [they] have cameras there but none of the footage is going to be used. I studied theater. I did video production. I'm very familiar with all of that. I was like, okay, no, there's red lights on the cameras. You don't get that footage unless you're going to use it for something. And then we had to sign an NDA about being on camera. The logo, the filming, the NDA and they covered our phone cameras. So it was like, “No, this is going to be used for something.”
I'm just really grateful that I had that knowledge because I feel like when people don't really understand that, that's when they end up reacting really badly on camera. My mom and I were super careful with what we were saying because you never know if they're going to take anything out of context.
As you were auditioning, what was your understanding of what the prize at the end would be?
I didn't think it was going to be an actual competition. I just thought that they were going to select few people to sing for these Grammy-winning producers, because they said you can bring an original song for them to work on if you win or whatnot. So that's what I thought it was.
At some point along the line, did that understanding change?
Yeah. My understanding changed like a few days after that first audition. Nathan was actually outside of my audition room when I walked out because he was talking to the the pilots and stuff. He said “Congratulations, you got a golden ticket” [advancing to the next round]. And I looked at him and I was like, “I know you from somewhere!” And he was like, “Be sure to rate our judges!” which I wasn't even supposed to rate a judge because I got a golden ticket?
Only the singers that lost that round or got eliminated were supposed to rate the judge.
I remember telling myself, “I need to remember that that guy. I need to remember who that is.”
Like he’s important to this story somehow.
I went to sleep like four days later and all of a sudden at 4 a.m., exactly 4 a.m., I woke up in a cold sweat. I was like, “That was Nathan Fielder. That was Nathan Fielder that I spoke to!” And it clicked. I don't remember his name, but I was like, he's a comedian. I went and I started googling. I literally looked up “awkward comedians” because I knew, like, that was his thing, really awkward stuff. And so I looked up awkward comedians and Nathan showed up. He was like the first one. "And I was like, “That's him. That was the guy!”
Then of course, I started doing all this research and I found out that he he had been filming for The Rehearsal season 2 and was like “Okay this is for The Rehearsal.”
At that point, what is your understanding of what is even happening?
I couldn't figure it out. I could not figure it out for the life of me. And that's what I really wanted to do. I'm like, okay, well, is this rehearsing singers to become professional singers on a professional level? Is this a bit? Is this a comedy?
I sat down with my mom and she was like, “Okay, we really need to talk. If they reach back out, you have to make a decision. Do you want to be made fun of on TV?” And I was like, “I don't know, like I just I don't know what this is for. I don’t know what it’s about.”
Your mom sounds awesome. That is a really great talk to have with you.
Yeah, my mom's been with me through America's Got Talent and everything that I've done. She's always been there. So she was like, “Okay, let's do research.” There was this one video on YouTube about “Is The Rehearsal a bit or made up?” something like that. I watched that video and then I started googling about people's experience on the show and stuff. When it came down to it, I was like, I know what's going on. I know what it's about. I can do everything in my power to prevent myself looking like a joke. So I was like, might as well. This is going to be awesome mom lore. That was in my head. This is good for the plot. This is going to be a funny story when I have kids and they're like, “My mom was on the TV show with Nathan Fielder!”
Am I going to win? Hell no. There's so many people that are way better than me, more experienced, more deserving. They're going to win. And I'm like, “Sure, might as well. Let's go do it!” I got the email confirming me for the next round, which was to actually audition for the Grammy-winning producers.
That part was not shown in the show at all. The part where you work with these Grammy-winning producers.
No. And I know somebody went online saying that that that didn’t happen. It did happen.
They gave me a bunch of feedback. Most of my feedback wasn't even vocal-related. He just gave me feedback on presence. Dancing, feeling comfortable in my body, which was awesome. Amazing advice that I still take and I use. I asked, “Do you have notes on my vocals?” And he was just like, “No, you're freaking awesome.”
Then what happened?
That's when they reached back out. They said, “Hey, we're actually filming now. We want you to come back. You made the top 50.” Those are the people that were on the show.
During the course of the show being aired, Variety published an article entitled “Nathan Fielder created a fake singing competition for The Rehearsal. One contestant lost $10,000 and feels betrayed. ‘I signed up to be a singer, not a lab rat.’”
In the article, Lana Love, one of the contestants, describes her experience flying to LA three times and discovering that the whole show was fake. You talked a little bit about this on Reddit. I am curious what your reaction was when you read the article. Because it was from this person who is a legitimate artist, timed her album release around the time of this interview, and essentially went public to express her dissatisfaction with the fact that, to a large degree, Wings of Voice was a bit as part of the show, The Rehearsal. What was your reaction when you read and saw this?
We hung out on set, quite a bit in fact. After the filming I added her on Instagram. She never added me back. But then when she released the article, I reached out. I was like, “Hey, I really want to know your side of things,” because on set, that's not what she had told me at all. […] When I saw it, it was very shocking to say the least. I was surprised because her experience wasn't at all the experience that I had. And I haven't read the article in a minute, but it was written out to make it seem like it was a joke, that we were treated as a joke, we were not taken care of.
I just wanted to make sure where this is coming from, because it wasn't my experience at all. On set, they made sure that we looked the best. They literally measured tailored outfits to us. Everybody looked good on camera. Never once were we made a joke of. Even on the show, Wings of Voice wasn't a joke. It wasn't handled like a joke. Yes, the circumstances were really funny. “Bring Me to Life,” I understand it was super funny, I was laughing, I thought it was hilarious. And also, we didn't know that they were real pilots.
We were never treated as a joke. So that's what I really wanted to know, was what made it that our experiences were so different? I honestly have a strong sense of justice. And for the show that did so much for me, that I won? They took care of me. The first thing they did after the episode aired was the production team reached out to me and they were like, “Are you okay?” They didn't say, “How do you feel?” It was, “Are you okay? Because we understand how intense this can be.”
You felt that to be a genuine concern and not just some PR move or something?
No. And it was private. They took really good care of us. I asked some of the friends I had made on set, “Do you guys feel the same way?” I just really wanted to understand. There were like, “No, that experience was completely different from what we had.”
It was really strange to me. So I reached out to ask her and she never responded.
I know you weren't made fun of on set, but did you ever feel uncomfortable with how the show framed you all on The Rehearsal? Not on set. I'm talking about on the show? Or did any of your colleagues and friends feel ridiculed in any way?
We didn't because by the time we we had filmed the last scene everybody already knew.
Everybody had figured out what the deal was, what this was part of?
Everyone had figured it out. And before then, you had the choice the whole way. They were like, you do not have to continue to do this if you do not feel comfortable. When it came down to like the circumstances of the show, I think I was way more open to it because I had figured it out already and I decided it's going to be a fun experience. I didn't think I was going to win or anything. I'm going to be a background character in this, so it's fine. Even my friends, I had asked them. We all feel the same way that the circumstances were really funny, like it's hilarious. But the whole process was very legitimate.
We went through the elimination rounds and we put all our honest and hard work on it. Everybody that was on the show deserved to be there. They treated us with the utmost respect. What we did wasn't a joke. But then when you put it in the show, it becomes funny, but still it wasn't. We never felt that way.
What happened when the episode aired? What were some of the big reactions you got?
So it was really exciting because I wanted to be with my friends who were on the show, so I invited them over. But most importantly, I wanted to be with my family. My mom had just had major surgery. I flew out to California and we were able to be together. And it was really nice because my grandparents from Colombia came out too.
Came out just to watch you on TV together?
Yeah.
That's lovely.
Yeah. So my grandparents, My mom, my dad, my boyfriend was there too. And then my friend who was on the show with me, Alan. Alan's incredible. And we got to sit down and watch it all together, and it was just it was unreal because they didn't know. I couldn't really tell anybody anything […] Just being able to experience that with my family was very emotional. And it was surreal, seeing myself and also because I was finding out what was going on as the episode finished. I was just so honored that my part in it was what brought the whole season together. With the singing competition and then “Bring Me To Life,” and Nathan talking about the autism diagnosis and all of those things. I was very honored that I was never made a joke of.
Like I said, my biggest fear was being on WB's Superstar season two. It was just so emotional. I couldn't believe it. I worked so hard. I was just really, really proud of myself for doing it, for making it. Even if my career doesn't go anywhere after that, it's always going to be so special to me because all my hard work just really came to that moment. I felt really honored.
How has your life changed, if at all, since winning Wings of Voice on The Rehearsal?
Yeah, it's changed a lot. It was very weird because I was in my hometown when that episode aired. And then getting on Kimmel. I got to meet Jimmy Kimmel, which was crazy! I was more excited to meet Guillermo. He's a Latino legend. So I've got to do big things like that.
Being in my hometown was super strange because people that I was friends with were giving me special treatment.
What does that mean? What's special treatment?
I met a friend, and she was like, “You're a celebrity. I'm going to take you out to eat. You don't pay for anything! You get the celebrity treatment.” I was like, “No, no, no. Do not worry. I'm still me!”
I am very open about this: I was bullied very bad in middle school, high school. And, I ran into one of my bullies post-Kimmel and everything. I don’t believe in true revenge, destroying a person and stuff. I don't believe in that.
So it was it was crazy because I ran into them and their friend group. Their friends, that I also knew, were so nice to me. They were like, “We're so excited. We're so proud of you. You should feel amazing. We always knew you were going to do this.” And so I asked the person, my bully, I was like, “Oh what about you? What are you up to?” And they refused to look at me. They refused to look at me or talk to me. And I was like you know, that's all I needed.
Wow.
These are the people in high school that told me, “Isabella, you should just quit singing because no one is ever going to want to pay to hear you sing. And no one should be tortured hearing you sing.” The same people that told me that. Most of these people pursued singing careers.
I didn't quit. Actually, it made me double down on it. I was like, no, I'm going to prove you wrong. And so that moment was just like, full circle to me was. First of all, proving these people that made my life hell, that they were wrong. But also, all these opportunities that I've gotten. I don't have to go back to my [graveyard shift] job. I don't have to do that anymore. I can get to do what I love and sing.
I'm still scared I'm going to be broke financially forever. But I can do this and live. I'm just so blessed because that people want to actually hear me. I got to do a gig in Houston. People are reaching out, wanting me to sing for them for like graduations, things like that. And it just I would have never been able to do that if HBO, if Nathan and all these pilots, didn't do this for me. It really means so much that they did that for me because I know how difficult it is and I know how many people's dream it is.
My life changed in the way that I always wanted my life to be, which was being able to sing and share my gift to people.
It's lovely to hear that this show had a lovely ending for you. I really appreciate you sharing your story with us today, Isabella. Thank you so much for chatting with us today on Decoding TV.
Thank you for having me!
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