“The world’s most famous and popular language is music.” – Psy.
Screamo, dance, country or ‘vapor-wave’, everybody enjoys music, and the good news is some of us are even able to hold a tune without sounding like the goats in the I Knew You Were Trouble era of Taylor Swift’s recent reign.
This week we’ve sourced some of our favourite covers from the last few years. These guys may be on the way to musical stardom, just getting started or simply warming up their vocal chords up for a laugh. Either way, they’re all great and we’re proud to have them in our community.
(Vapor-wave is an actual genre by the way, you should try it. Or – actually – don’t.)
Take Me To Church- Hozier – Sarah Close
We’re more than willing to admit we have a bit of a soft spot for the incredibly talented Sarah Close. She’s featured on TenEighty countless times, and for good reason.
Uploading this cover of Hozier’s smash hit on Christmas Day 2014 was a pretty special present. She starts off all nice and gentle and then BAM. POWERFUL VOICE. EVERYWHERE. And it’s GREAT.
Over 1.5 million hits later it’s become one of her highest viewed videos ever. Can’t think why.
Years & Years – King (Acapella Cover) – Lou Foulkes
Question: could Lou Foulkes have put himself on screen any more times than he managed to do here?
There is, however, good reason – he’s only gone and sung every single part of the damn song! Like, EVERY part. From the vocals to the tshh tshh tshh sounds. The cymbals, right?
Oh yeah, and our favourite part: Teeny tiny dancing Lou. He features several times. Watch out for him and his rad moves.
Fresh Prince of Bel Air | Bathtub Busking – Jon A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQc8tyfhi5M
The Bathtub Busking series was started by Leena Norms and has since collected a variety of musicians and performers covering a wide selection of hits. This one’s pretty special though.
There’s a whole minute of grunting and positioning of bodies before Jon A introduces himself and the squad he’s sharing a bath with. And yes, your eyes do not deceive you – this video involves a saxophone and trombone.
It also features some pretty sweet rapping that takes us right back to the ’90s. The only thing this video lacked was any of the guys doing the Carlton dance, though to be fair, that might have been too much for us to handle.
All About That Bass – with Bry! – Dodie Clark
What’s that? You have a hugely catchy but slightly problematic song and you don’t know if it’s OK to sing along out loud in public? Leave it to Dodie Clark and Bry to nudge the lyrics in a slightly more positive direction and make it AWESOME.
Apart from the beautiful merging of their voices, Dodie’s ukulele playing and Bry’s fabulous fringe, the main highlight of this video is hearing both of them say ‘booty’ repeatedly. Never gets old.
Watch out, Meghan.
WILD – Troye Sivan Cover – Ant Lightfoot
The most recent video on the list comes from Ant Lightfoot who, just last week, whipped up his own interpretation of Troye Sivan’s track, WILD.
He really gets into the song (as he notes throughout the video) with lots of dramatic exhaling and brow-furrowing. Otherwise it’s an incredibly simple, unassuming but exquisite cover of a song that proves you don’t need a full production to convey lyrics and underline their poignancy.
MORE COVERS, ANT.
By jove, we’ve done it.
Enough music to last you about half an hour. Great stuff. We’ve probably missed a few extremely talented people – maybe you could tell us about them? Contact information below, but in the meantime how about some more Five of the Best goodness? Hmmm?
Five of the Best: Great British Summer
Five of the Best: Blindfolded Makeup Challenges
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