Ireland’s Got You Covered

Every song has a cover. Some covers are more famous than the original (Girls Just Wanna Have Fun anyone?). This post is all about showing that, though Ireland has plenty of stunning original songs and amazing vocal performances, our gifted musicians and songwriters can and have picked their favourite songs to cover and risen to the challenge every single time. I’m here to show you some of my favourites (with videos included). Quite a number of these covers are from radio stations, namely BBC Radio 1 and Today FM, but the one thing all these covers have in common is that they always make well known songs new and interesting, depending on how the cover artist decides to perform the song. Every cover is a new interpretation of the original and these covers are as good as originals in their own right. These covers appear in no particular order, so lets cover my 10 favourite song covers by Irish artist.

Lose You To Love Me

Original Artist: Selena Gomez

Irish Artist: Roisin O

Roisin O is a stunning vocalist any day of the week and this cover was so popular that she released it as a single so you know it’s going to be good. An incredibly emotional song that could have gone very wrong but Roisin manages to capture the emotion of the song and delivers a stellar overall performance.

Stay Another Day

Original Artist: East 17

Irish Artist: Wild Youth

When just hearing the count in gives you goosebumps, you know you’re in for a real treat. A far more laid back song, from a band that is known for dancing and bopping their way through their own tunes, shows that Wild Youth have range and depth to behind their raw talent with a real emotional connection to the meaning of the song.

Dreams

Original Artist: The Cranberries

Irish Artist: Irish Women In Harmony

A charity single displaying the array of female talent that Ireland has to offer and it is a stunning blend of vocals from the women of the Irish Music Scene. This song shows the real power of women and gets extra brownie points for being originally Irish too. Brava Ladies!

Where Everybody Knows Your Name (Theme from Cheers)

Original Artist: Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart-Angelo

Irish Artist: Foy Vance

A warm and welcoming cover of a song that is all about feeling at home and welcome in a familiar place. It brings back memories of the homey crowded pub with all the usual faces present and accounted for (you know the people I mean, those auld ones by the bar that everybody knows the name of and those folks know all and see all. Almost like having village elders but they like meeting for a beverage or two to share their knowledge/gossip); something that has been missing since Miss Rona decided to show up.

I Will Always Love You

Original Artist: Whitney Houston

Irish Artist: Aimee

A hard song to sing for anyone and one which will always be compared to the original but Aimee makes this cover look effortless. Aimee’s full vocal range is put on display and she absolutely nails every note. Truly and effortlessly beautiful version of the song that’s well worth the listen.

Lover/Flashing Lights

Original Artist: Taylor Swift/Kanye West

Irish Artist: Dermot Kennedy

Taylor vs Kanye but this time it’s a mash up of two of the biggest songs from one of the biggest vendettas in recent music history and it worked. Dermot’s vocals seamlessly blend the songs together for the BBC Live Lounge.

Waterfalls

Original Artist: TLC

Irish Artist: Ruthanne Cunningham

This cover made it onto Ruthanne’s debut album and absolutely deserved it’s spot. Ruthanne could have covered any number of songs with her powerful vocals but this song slotted nicely into the albums themes. This song utilizes the beautiful harmony of Ruthanne’s backing vocalists and, fyi, Ruthanne makes that rap sound easy; it’s really not.

The Book of Love

Original Artist: Peter Gabriel

Irish Artist: Gavin James

Gavin has always had a unique voice and, for a song like this, his voice is perfect. The simplistic approach to this song is always the best and Gavin knows that too. This version is as timeless as the original and I can see and have seen it being used at plenty of weddings.

Dancing in the Moonlight

Original Artist: Thin Lizzy

Irish Artist: Loah

Loah created a mellow, bluesy cover of Thin Lizzy and it is fabulous. So at odds with the original but it works spectacularly well. This is the epitome of where the cover artist’s decision to alter tempo and tone was done to perfection. There’s bonus points to be had here as well for covering an Irish artist.

Circles

Original Artist: Post Malone

Irish Artist: Niall Horan

This one shouldn’t make sense but it does and, oddly enough, it doesn’t sound forced or unusual even though I was expecting it to. Niall Horan makes a folksy cover of Post Malone sound 100% natural and is a unique rendition of the song that is worth noting.