At last night’s MTV Video Music Awards, the specter of Amy Winehouse loomed large. Russell Brand and Tony Bennett (with whom Winehouse recorded her final performance) gave eulogies and Adele, who admits she couldn’t have succeeded without Winehouse coming first, knocked the audience out with a soulful “Someone Like You.” The most official tribute came in the form of Bruno Mars, covering “Valerie” with his suit-wearing, high-stepping soul band. Continue reading »
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. Continue reading »
Since the release of Adele‘s album 21 in February, hundreds, if not thousands, of covers have been released. While most of them haven’t come close to capturing the raw emotion of Adele’s tracks, there have been some interesting takes on her tracks of heartbreak and betrayal (one of my favorites has been Jamie Woon’s “Someone Like You”). Now Jackson Harris has released his take of a lover scorned by releasing a video of Adele’s smash ‘Rolling in the Deep’. Continue reading »
YouTube is filled with amateur cover “artists.” Most stink. On the ‘Tube extracts the exceptions.
On NBC’s The Voice, Blake Shelton picked Dia Frampton after she had been singing for four seconds. Four seconds. It’s no wonder. The 23 year old singer songwriter from Utah has a talent and versatility that somehow manages to coexist with her quietly powerful style.
The Voice may end up being Frampton’s big break, but she’s been a star of the internet music scene for years in the acoustic-duo-turned-full-band she started with her sister, Meg. Fittingly, they go by Meg & Dia. Recently, though, Dia has been blowing up the band’s YouTube channel with her own solo covers and we’re all lucky for it. Continue reading »
Every Wednesday, our resident Gleek Eric Garneau gives his take on last night’s Glee covers.
In “A Night of Neglect,” the glee club decide to put on a benefit concert to raise money for their trip to Nationals. The theme of the concert: neglected artists! Of course, scheming Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) vows to make sure the show shan’t go on.
Sometimes it’s easy to forget that Glee’s a comedy. Usually the show drenches itself in melodrama, which can be one of its charms, but the laughs don’t always flow. I warmly welcomed, then, last night’s embracing of the ridiculous. The guest stars really helped in that regard — kudos to the show’s producers for bringing back the characters played by incredibly gifted comic actors Stephen Toblowsky and Cheyenne Jackson. I think Glee gave Jackson more to do in his three scenes tonight than 30 Rock has all season. Continue reading »