Bruno Mars’ latest album Unorthodox Jukebox is proof that the singer can do any and all music genres. The fact that this man’s tunes often make Top 40 give me faith in the music industry, but his talents don’t end just there. After watching that Pandora skit on SNL, it’s no doubt that Mars has a knack for impersonations which include Michael Jackson and Justin Bieber.
He is also one of those artists who regularly cover other works for concerts and acoustic sessions. If you didn’t already know how ridiculously talented he is, you will after hearing him tackle the works of iconic artists such as Elton John, Tina Turner, Amy Winehouse, and Michael Jackson.
WATCH BRUNO MARS DO COVERS OF SOME OF MUSIC’S MOST ICONIC SONGS HERE:
The Way You Make Me Feel
Valerie
Dirty Diana
Ever have that really awkward experience when someone opens their mouth and they do not sound at all how you expected them too? Like when a big burly guy is unexpectedly high pitched, or a girl has an uncharacteristically nasally voice? Or how about those people who have accents who you don’t expect them too…or even weirder when someone you expect to have an accent doesnt have one? The cake topper is when someone has an unexpected accent…like when an asian has a Russian accent. True story, it’s happened to me. It’s nothing against the people, it just tends to really get people really surprised.
Here are five covers of people who at first glance seem a certain way, but when they open their mouth to sing you have to take a double take. Prepare to be shocked. I guess I should make some cliche about not judging a book by it’s cover…but lets be real. I will always go for the books with the most interesting covers.
The Soulful Ginger
The Dorky Rappers
The Balladic Punk Read more…
Sarah Diamond and Matt Aiden are a new cover duo on our radar.
Last night Aiden tweeted a link to their new acoustic cover of The Swedish House Mafia’s “Don’t You Worry Child,” and we couldn’t help but stop and listen.
With Aisen on guitar and Diamond on vocals, the pair sound great together. You can never have too many acoustic cover artists, and as you know we love discovering new ones.
Sarah has a personal youtube handle saradiamondmusic, but the two often collaborate under for acoustic covers under Sara Diamond Matt Aisen where they posted their acoustic covers of songs including Maroon 5′s “Sunday Morning” and Michael Jackson’s “P.Y.T.”
Watch their cover of “Don’t You Worry Child” here
Watch the pair cover Sunday Morning below Read more…
It seems like there are amazing new cover artists appearing everyday. Thank you youtube for letting all these amazing talents put their work online to share with us. Nicki Wissel’s cover of Olly Mur’s “Troublemaker” is so soulful and you really see him get into the song. This guy’s voice is insane. I also love the backdrop, the laundry room makes the cover seem even more stripped down and basic.
Nicki Wissel has covers of other songs like King Of Leon’s “Sex On Fire,” Ron Pope’s “A Drop in the Ocean,” and David Guetta’s “Titanium.” He’s also German! He even has a few original songs up on his youtube channel (in German). Can we expect an EP? I hope so! Whats better than acoustic cover artists? Yep. Foreign cover artists. Did I mention he also tried out for X Factor?
I’m slightly obsessed now.
Watch the cover below
Watch Nicki Wissel’s cover of “Sex On Fire” below Read more…
We found a new acoustic cover artist to swoon over, and his name is Colin Healy. His most recent cover, done with fellow artist Caroline Mauck, is a folksy version of “I Believe In A Thing Called Love” by British glam rock band The Darkness. While the original track is heavy rock, Healy and Mauck bring it down a notch and perform it as a romantic duet. We love the way they re-invented the song for your “chill-out” playlist. Their harmonies are beautiful!
In the past, Healy covered Taylor Swift and One Direction. I’m currently jamming to his “22” cover. If you like his covers, go subscribe to Colin Healy. What’s better? The Virginia-based musician has a debut album in the works.
Watch “I Believe In A Thing Called Love”
Listen to the original song by The Darkness Read more…
Time flies by when you’re kidrauhl. Celebrating six years on YouTube, Justin Bieber treated his fans to a preview of his upcoming acoustic album.
“What’s up guys!” the Biebs happily greets his viewers before the intimate performance. “It’s been six years since I posted my first music video ever…so we’re going to post a little preview of my acoustic album, this is one of my favorite songs on the album!”
Kicking back with his guitarist, the Biebs then shows off his vocal chops. At the end of the video, he even says he’ll take you home or “wherever you want to go.” (What a cheeky guy!!)
It’s nice to see Justin going back to his roots. He may be all grown up but he’ll still be the same kidrauhl we all know and love!!
“Believe Acoustic” comes out January 29, so mark your calendars!!!
Watch the performance here:
Are you coincidentally at a redneck picnic party? Check out this banjo cover of 50 Cent’s hit “In Da Club” and prepare to dosey doe. I mean, I’m used to acoustic and a capella covers, but the Banjo? This is a first…but hey, don’t knock it until you try it. This cover is definitely innovative and unique!
This is not the first unsual take on a song. The likes of Skrillex and Beyonce have also covered the famous song.
Watch other covers below
Skrillex
Ed Sheeran Read more…
The smoking hot guys from The Wanted performed an acoustic cover of “I Found You” during ANDPOP’s LIVE interview with them. They’re amazing artists in the studio but they proved they can put on a wicked acoustic show too.
As always, the guys let loose while performing — clapping to the beat, laughing with each other and fooling around. Especially little Nathan, who stole the show.
Watch it here
Stopping by on The Ellen Show, Justin Bieber covered many topics such as his new owl tattoo, his outfit meeting the Prime Minister of Canada and being snubbed by the Grammys.
Having won several awards this year at the American Music Awards, Bieber said he wasn’t too broken up about being left out from one of the biggest annual music awards shows.
“It’s definitely something that I was looking forward to, but I know that it’ll happen one day,” he said, noting that he is still young. “I’m blessed to be able to do what I love every day.”
And because Bieber is clearly all about the music, he also had some special news for his fans. Returning back to his kidrauhl roots, Bieber announced on the show that he is releasing an acoustic record in January!
“It’s something I think the fans really like,” he said, “because I started out on YouTube, just playing my guitar and singing without all the production and stuff. I like to put out acoustic albums. I think it’s more intimate.”
The exact date of release isn’t known yet. But for all we know, it’s days like these that make us cross our fingers and hope that the world isn’t going to end in six days. Because if it does, we’ll NEVER GET TO HEAR IT.
(Don’t worry. I highly doubt the world is going to end. That’s just ridiculous.)
It’s no surprise Diamond Rings takes a strong creative license over his unique sound and image, considering he started out by recording and distributing his songs in his bedroom. He’s someone who stands out both musically and artistically in a visually saturated culture — something he feels is important.
“I think it’s really important to take ownership over every facet of what it is to be a muscian in 2012,” he said in an interview with ANDPOP. ”The more I can do on my own to shape who I am and to shape what people think of me the better.”
Now that he’s gaining even more acclaim from fans and music critics, his work is done on a grander scale. To keep himself challenged creatively he’s involving others in the process, or “trying to” he laughs.
The artist performed an acoustic version of “All The Time” at Toronto’s Drake and gave some solid advise for aspiring musicians, or really, anyone in the artistic community.
“I would advise anyone starting out who has a love of music,” he said “to follow their hearts and not be afraid to trust intuition and trust their instincts, and not be afraid to try those things that seem crazy.”
He added: “If your heart is in the right place good things will start to happen.”
Watch it here
Diamond Rings: All The Time (Acoustic Performance) from ANDPOP on Vimeo.
The smoking hot guys from The Wanted performed an acoustic cover of “I Found You” during ANDPOP’s LIVE interview with them this past weekend. They’re amazing artists in the studio but they proved they can put on a wicked acoustic show too.
As always, the guys let loose while performing — clapping to the beat, laughing with each other and fooling around. Their energy is infectious.
Watch it here:
Dan Henig performed an explicit, acoustic version of “Get Low” to some unsuspecting coffee house hermits and they didn’t know what to think. His heartfelt rendition is punctuated with the dirty lyrics: “Get low, get low, get low, get low/ To the window, to the wall/ To the sweat drop down my balls/ To all you bitches crawl/ To all skee skee motherfucker, all skee skee got dam.”
“Let’s just say they’re in for a bit of a surprise,” the singer said before he performed. While some of the customers laugh along with the song, others were total buzzkills — check out the kid in the corner who doesn’t even glance up from his homework.
The original rap version is by Lil Jon and The East Side Boyz. It’s the ultimate prank and I have to say “Well done sir.”
Watch it here:
Watch the original here Read more…
While Of Monsters and Men had musical aspirations, they never dreamed they’d be full time musicians.
“I always wanted to do it but it just felt silly to say it because it’s just so unrealistic,” said vocalist and guitarist Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir.
The six piece indie folk band experienced swift success after winning a national battle of the bands competition in Iceland back in 2010. Since then their single “Little Talks” from their debut studio album My Head Is An Animal has topped Billboard’s alternative chart.
The group performed a live acoustic session of “Mountain Sound” for Making Waves. They told ANDPOP they never intended to make an album at first — they just wanted to write songs and word quickly spread.
They also had some apt advice for musicians. While many artists throw off romantic affirmations like “follow your dreams,” vocalist and guitarist Ragnar Þórhallsson is a little more practical: “Do it because you want to do it and make music that you yourself like and not that you think everyone else will like,” he said. “Like my dad always says, just keep on keeping on.”
Watch it here
Barack Obama’s fave band Two Door Cinema Club performed an acoustic version of “Sleep Alone” for ANDPOP and talked about all the mundane things that excite them in North America.
It’s no surprise they spend more time over here than anywhere else in the world, considering how crazy we are about them. Even the Pres is a huge fan of the Northern Irish trio. There were rumours a couple months ago that Obama booked every seat for one of their gigs in Washington DC and although it wasn’t true, we’d believe it!
“We actually spend more time in America than anywhere else in the world,” said bass player Kevin Baird.
A lot of kids have dreams of being musicians but unfortunately they just don’t have the talent. Their parents either let them down gently or nod along with a crooked smile on their face to humour them.
These kids on the other hand have pure talent. The two young Irish boys did an acoustic version of Rihanna’s “We Found Love” and it was all captured on a cell phone camera. While one plays the guitar and does a rap verse in the middle, the other shows off his pipes.
For some reason the YouTube comments have taken an inexplicable turn for the worse — commenting on Irish descendants of all things (Are they REALLY Irish?). Let’s focus on what’s important here people: these two kids are mega talented, and we hope to hear more from them.
Watch it here
Cher’s “Believe” is often in the top five list of annoying songs people hate to hear, but this X-Factor UK contestant did a few nips and tucks, acoustified it and ended up stunning the judges and audience members with her touching performance.
When Ella Henderson said she was going to perform the song, everyone braced themselves for the overplayed ex-club banger. But her touching performance was enough to impress all the judges — even making one of them cry. Cher was impressed, tweeting: “work Done …Went on Utube 2 c young girl sing Believe! Tears came 2 my eyes! So Touching! a Great version of a Great Song. WE Can Share It !”
Ella’s version gave the lyrics a completely different meaning. I’d definitely add it to my playlist!
Watch her performance here:
Since covering Robyn’s “Call Your Girlfriend” back in May, Lennon and Maisy Stella have gained a lot of attention from notables like Michael Kors. The designer even invited the ladies to Kors Karaoke, which is part of FNO, fashion’s biggest party of the year.
The sisters couldn’t make it so they covered Corey Hart’s “Sunglasses at Night” to thank him for the invitation. I love their acoustic version because they tame the unabashedly “1984″ track with their beautiful voices. Michael Kors was so impressed he added the video to his YouTube channel.
In his spare time, 18-year-old Curtis Golden plays computer games, reads comics and collects figurines of superheroes. He describes himself as the “stereotypical nerd.” Spurred by his sisters, he also became a huge Spice Girls fan, which is why he was probably all the more nervous to audition for X-Factor UK in front of band member Mel B.
Unfortunately, Mel B branded his unexpected, countrified performance of Christina Aguilera’s “Candyman” as “annoying and irritating.” His Spice Girls memorabilia wasn’t enough to win Mel B over but his unique performance was enough to get me.
According to Metro UK, the contestant was too shy to audition in previous years but finally decided to go for it after surviving a serious car accident. He told them that after something like that happens, “you kind of stop giving a c**p.”
Watch below to see if he ended up getting through.
We’ve heard tons of awesome One Direction covers lately but we’ve got room for another one if it’s Rita Ora. The stylish singer visited BBC Radio 1 “Live Lounge” and covered “What Makes You Beautiful.” The song is just as chirpy as the original but changes the instrumentation with some maracas and a tropical sounding guitar and drum solo in the middle.
Ora also performed an acoustic version of her single “How We Do (Party).” We only have a couple weeks to go until her debut album ORA drops, but these performances will satiate us in the meantime.
“What Makes You Beautiful”
“How We Do (Party)” Read more…
Name: Noah
Song: David Guetta’s “Titanium”
Why we’re obsessed: We first saw Noah when he performed a bluesey version of LMFAO’s “Sexy and I Know It” — proving that the song can actually sound classy. His new acoustic cover for “Titanium” is even more electrifying than the storm literally happening right outside my window right now. According to his YouTube channel, he likes to make music with minimal effects and tricks, yet his simple covers capture a spark of something incredible.
Since Noah’s cover really only consists of him strumming the guitar, he can showcase his intriguing chops and visible passion as an artist. More than 106,000 views in six days is well earned.
Background: At just 18, this South Carolina native has been wowing us all by uploading various top 40 covers since 2010. Strumming the guitar or playing the piano, Noah notes he loves all kinds of music, but what he writes is pretty “organic” and includes some good melodies, lyrics and a message.
Watch it here:
