Lorde's 'Royals': Who covered it best?
New Zealand pixie pop savant Lorde shot to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 last week with her ode to normalcy and fantasy, ”Royals.” And with great popularity, comes great YouTube covers.
The song’s admission to the regularity of everyday life, versus the ”luxe” life that so many of our big ”royals” sing about makes it a fun cover for celebrity artists and dreamers alike. Let’s see who’s done it best…so far.
Mayer Hawthorne: He funks things up a bit with heavy percussion and electric guitar for VEVO’s ”Unexpected Covers” series. Unexpected, maybe, but impossible not to play over and over.
Pentatonix: First and foremost, get excited for the return of The Sing-Off in December! Nick Lachey is probably polishing his shiny dress shirts at this very moment. Second, is there anything former Sing-Off winners, Pentatonix, don’t absolutely slay? Each one of these a cappella vocalists and percussionists is a revelation in their own regard; pack them all together and their sound is mind-blowing every time, including their cover of ”Royals.”
Selena Gomez: Selena’s concert cover is a sweet, straightforward shout out to her fellow rising pop princess royalty. Unfortunately, we can’t count on Lorde returning the favor as she recently told Rolling Stone she doesn’t like the non-feminist themes of Selena’s ”Come and Get It.” Wonder what she thought about Spring Breakers?
Cimorelli: It’s good to see some girls Lorde’s own age singing her song with a similar skill and tenacity.
M.I.A. ”Paper Planes” mashup: No, it’s not technically a cover. But, Amos Welling, a DJ from Australia, layered Lorde’s vocals over M.I.A.’s popular 2008 anthem, to girl-power-inducing effect.
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You tell us – who covered it best?
