Video Premiere: Allison Iraheta & Halo Circus Offer a Healing Message With ‘Band Aid’

Some may remember Allison Iraheta as the magenta-haired teen from American Idol Season 8, but in the eight years since her magnificent top four run, much has changed. Sure, the neon-colored tresses remain, but Iraheta has grown up, gotten married, sung backup for greats like Neil Diamond and Mary J. Blige … and, most importantly, formed the bilingual alt-rock band Halo Circus with her husband, Matthew Hager. The group, which has collaborated with everyone from songwriting legend Paul Williams to Duran Duran’s John Taylor, released their debut album, Bunny, to critical acclaim last year.

Related: My ‘American Idol’ Experience Essay, by Allison Iraheta

Today, Yahoo Music is excited to premiere the official video for Halo Circus’s “Band Aid,” cowritten by Paul Williams and featured on the band’s upcoming EP, The East Lansing Sessions, out May 5. “This video was shot entirely in Taft, Calif., one of the 30 cities that brought us to their town last fall on our first-ever fully crowdfunded American tour,” Iraheta tells Yahoo. “We wanted to capture our experience, both visually and emotionally. When we were driving through the country and staying in people’s homes, it was very clear to us that this is not a divided country. What we saw were good people dazed by hard times and towns struggling for the dignity of better days. We have no political agenda or affiliation. Our agenda is love.”

Halo Circus
Halo Circus (Photo: courtesy of Halo Circus/Facebook)

Williams has declared himself an “industrial-strength fan” of Iraheta’s, describing her as “one of the best singers you’ve ever heard in your life.” When he dropped by Yahoo Music’s studio’s last year for a joint interview to promote Bunny, he gushed, “I was stunned with the soulfulness. … There’s something … Is it the quality of her voice? Is it the passion? What is it about Leon Russell’s voice that makes me say no matter what Leon Russell is singing, I can never pick the needle up and not listen to it all the way through. It’s the same way with Allison.”

Above, check out Halo Circus’s “Band Aid” music video above, plus an exclusive 2016 acoustic performance of the song below.

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