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and I love that ,” she says . She calls both of her coaches “ ama�ing individuals ” and says they are as nice off-camera as they are on .
For McCall , Hailey ’ sfourth-place finish is asource of great pride . “ Something I love and respect about Hailey is that even when Iwould offer her anew techni�ue or an idea or something like that , you would watch her take it in ,” he says . “ She ’ d then come back and have improved it , or made it her own in some really special way . Iget so happy and borderline teary when I think about �the competition� , because itwas just one of those perfect moments in time where she was so ready .”
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From start to finish , her involvement with The Voice spanned a year , says Hailey , who is a freshman at Passaic County Technical Institute in �ayne . She says it was strange to go back to school and have people recogni�e her from the show , and really “ overwhelming ” and “ weird ” to have hundreds of students come up to her and ask her �uestions . But despite the attention , she says it was nice to know she had somuch support behind her .
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She still sings regularly as part of the PCTI chorus , and is on the school ’ s music track , with abig portion of her day focused on learning about how to produce and write her own music .
Hailey recently did a meet and greet event at alocal �no ’ s , and says she hadn ’ t expected so many people to show up to support her . Currently , she ’ s working on some new music , and is “ just playing around with a whole bunch of different things .” Her dream album would be a combination of Olivia Rodrigo and Adele-like songs , though not every song would be about heartbreak . She ’ s a big fan of the latter , whom she considers “ very real ” and a lyricist who can tell a story . “ I mean , she ’ s Adele . �ho wouldn ’ tlove her� ” she says with a laugh .
But for now , Hailey is mostly focused on school and on being a teenager . “ Singing was just something that was so natural to me , and it ’ s just something that always made me happy ,” she says . “ I always had adream of being astar and being a singer and in�uencing people across the world .”
Though , while Los Angeles is exciting , she says she likes living in Clifton because it is a “ homey ,” small big town with kind people . “ It ’ s somewhere I ’ ve lived for my whole life ,” she says . “ It ’ s just home to me , and it ’ ll always be home to me .” ■
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