The power of the internet is that we can access talent from all over the world.
Though America exports plenty of its own talent, there are still so many other performers around the world whose talent is yet to be discovered. Fortunately, this video shines a light on a new one.
The man’s name is José Gonzalez, and in this song, he gave his audience his own rendition of a song by pop group the Knife.
As the video begins, Gonzalez sits in the middle of the stage OtherVoicesLive provided for him.
With only a single ray of bright light shining over him, he held his acoustic guitar and readied himself to sing. He gave the audience some quick appreciation, and seconds later, he started plucking his guitar to introduce the song.
He transformed the song to emphasize its meaningful lyrics.
Originally, “Heartbeats” is an electronic pop song of the Swedish duo, the Knife.
It was released as the leading solo in their second Deep Cuts studio album in Sweden in December 2002, and was reissued in October 2004. González covered the song and released it as his single in 2006.
He stripped down the original’s electronic, synth-based instrumentality, and transformed the song’s approach by only using a classical acoustic guitar, giving it a simplistic, folksy and classic vibe.
Each stanza of the song consists of a few words and short syllabic measures ranging from two to seven syllables.
The only thing Gonzalez could do to make the song much better is to give it more emphasis on the meaning of the lyrics. With only his acoustic guitar as his accompaniment, he made people focus on listening to the words rather than getting immersed by the lullaby-sounding instrumental.
He poured his soul into the lyrics, and he made it completely his own!
Even though this video is 10 years old, it’s still getting all the love it deserves. It was posted on YouTube by OtherVoicesLive in May 2010, and has since gotten up to more than nine million views and 66,000 likes. Needless to say, this clip never ceases to amaze the people who randomly come across it through YouTube’s algorithm.
They were haunted by Gonzalez’s soothing voice, and they really appreciated the raw quality that he gave the song.
As it turns out, Gonzalez has a considerable musical background.
He is a singer-songwriter and guitarist from Gothenburg, Sweden, but his Swedish-Argentinian indie-folk style was greatly influenced by Latin folk and pop music, particularly the music of the Cuban singer-songwriter, Silvio Rodriguez. At that time, he was also infatuated with songs from legendary reggae musician Bob Marley, as well as the King of Pop, Michael Jackson.
As this video makes clear, Gonzalez is a profound, artful thinker whose unique approach to songwriting distinguishes him from the world.
His songs have a special emotional strength which is an excellent addition to what is now an outstanding piece of work.
In his career, he has released three studio albums: Veneer, In Our Nature and Vestiges & Claws. According to critics, Vestiges & Claws is considered to be the most musically gorgeous and lyrical album in his catalogue.
This 2015 album, is without a doubt, his masterful masterpiece.
Even so, it was clear to see from this video onward that Gonzalez was a considerable talent!
Be sure to click the video below to see the whole thing:
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