Cover Me Presents: A YouTube Tribute to Adele’s ‘21’

Since Adele’s 21 came out in America six months ago today, it has enjoyed the level of chart longevity few thought possible in this day and age. The year’s bestseller by a mile, 21 currently ranks at #4 on the Billboard 200, 26 weeks after it first entered the charts. As albums by Lady Gaga and Beyoncé make big first impressions then quickly sink, Adele’s little-album-that-could remains floating above it all.

In honor of what looks to be 2011’s defining album, today we honor its six months of dominance with a special tribute. 21 has inspired countless amateur singers to cover its instantly-related songs on YouTube and below we pull together covers of each. A few faces are familiar to these pages (The Shures, Karmin), but most are little-known fans showing serious potential. We don’t claim these are the absolute best covers of each song on YouTube – if you want to wade through 12,000+ “Rolling in the Deep” covers, be our guest – but they’re ten performances we enjoy. We hope you do too.

The Shures – Rolling in the Deep

Shayna Goldstein – Rumour Has It

Eli Lieb – Turning Tables

Benjamin Hague – Don’t You Remember

Stanton – Set Fire to the Rain

Jeff Schneeweis – He Won’t Go

Danz1984 – Take It All

Nicole Weisman – I’ll Be Waiting

Jack Martello – One and Only

Adele – Lovesong (The Cure cover)*

Karmin and Aston – Someone Like You

*Already a cover, so we posted her version.

Still don’t own ’21’? Pick it up at iTunes or Amazon and see what everyone’s talking about.

Cover Me is now on Patreon! If you love cover songs, we hope you will consider supporting us there with a small monthly subscription. There are a bunch of exclusive perks only for patrons: playlists, newsletters, downloads, discussions, polls - hell, tell us what song you would like to hear covered and we will make it happen. Learn more at Patreon.