Pop stars doing “unexpected” covers is a tried and tested formula. It has been a fixture on Radio 1’s Live Lounge in the UK for many years while Triple J’s Like A Version in Australia dates back to the early 2000s. Since the rise of YouTube, these clips have been able to spread globally and take on a life of their own.
It was only a matter of time before YouTube itself got in on the action for YouTube Originals; but arriving late to the party means it has to add a whole new twist. The twist in question is that it is asking pop stars to cover the song that was number 1 in the UK charts in the week they were born.
The first participant on Birthday Song (yes, they have gone with a highly selfexplanatory title) is Lewis Capaldi who was born on 7th October 1996. That means ‘Setting Sun’ by Chemical Brothers featuring Noel Gallagher was top of the charts when he entered the world.
A full-on and clattering rave rewrite of ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ (with Noel Gallagher declaring, “You’re the devil in me I brought in from the cold…”) is not what one might expect from Lewis Capaldi – and that is the appeal.
“Lewis discovers the song he was born to sing,” says the text below the teaser video on YouTube. “Follow him through the process of fashioning his own unique version of his birthday song and learn about how he became the person he is today: a lyricist, a singer, a performer, a jokester and natural-born attention seeker – a story told by the people closest to him.”
Luke Hyams, YouTube’s head of originals in Europe told Deadline there was an “incredible appetite” for Capaldi on the video platform and says it is a testing of the water. If it is a success, others will be commissioned. There is added poignancy here as Gallagher has been highly critical of Capaldi, calling him both an “idiot” and “Chewbacca”. We are very much on board for pop stars throwing shade at the eternally misanthropic Gallagher through the medium of his own songs. Let’s hope that’s the theme for a spin-off series as there are a LOT of pop stars Gallagher has blasted over the years. Not least his own brother
