 " Breakaway " has also been covered by contestants from reality television singing competitions . Katie Stevens covered the song on the ninth season of American Idol . Despite listening to the judges ' comments to sing a contemporary song , her rendition was criticized from the judges ; Randy Jackson thought the note was too big for Stevens while Ellen DeGeneres felt Stevens did not sell the lyrics . Kara DioGuardi said , " I don 't think you know who you are yet as an artist " , an opinion agreed by Simon Cowell . Jim Cantiello of MTV noted that Stevens ' performance of the song was her weakest performance in the show , stating " Unfortunately , her uneven vocals on ' Breakaway ' exposed her youthful inexperience . " The same opinion was echoed by Eric Ditzian of MTV who opined that Stevens failed to resonate her youthful energy favouring the song choice . " Breakaway " was performed by Julie Zorrilla in the semi @-@ finals of American Idol season 10 . Samantha Stephens of The Republican felt Zorrilla 's performance was mediocre , expressing that it wasn 't painful to watch and wasn 't anything special either . Gil Kaufman of MTV remarked that Zorrilla 's voice was shaky and it lacked personality . After landing in the bottom two , Belle Amie , an English pop duo contestant on the seventh season of The X Factor , decided to perform " Breakaway " as their survival song . Nevertheless , they were eliminated in the episode . Swedish Idol contestant , Alice <unk> covered the song which appeared in Det <unk> från Idol , an album released from the musical competition . The song was also performed by Megan Hilty on the episode titled " Understudy " of the American television series Smash , which aired on April 7 , 2012 . Matt Tucker of <unk> thought the performance was " lovely " , describing it as one of the things that stood out in the episode . The song was covered by Jenna Ushkowitz , Kevin McHale and Darren Criss , on the 97th episode , " Frenemies " , of the musical series Glee , which aired on February 25 , 2014 . For the thirteenth season of American Idol , the song is used as the send off song when a contestant is voted off . The contestant who is voted off , their cover of the song is played during the goodbye montage video package . It was also used in thirtieth season of Brazilian soap opera Malhação . 
