You’ve never heard “Hotel California” quite like this before. It might be hard to imagine the song without the musical wizardry of The Eagles driving it, but busker Fabio Rodrigues took the song to another place just with his acoustic guitar, and a little help from his friend. Fabio delivered gorgeous flamenco guitar parts and an intimate vocal, making the rocker hit like a lullaby. He then threw the mic to Allie Sherlock, who turned the vocal into some mesmerizing soul power.
47 million viewers couldn’t get enough of the musical chemistry between Fabio and Allie. Fabio continued the arrangement by delivering a unique acoustic take on the solo before the pair closed out the song with some beautiful harmonies. Fans praised Fabio and Allie’s take on the 1977 hit, noting that they managed to bring something completely new to the radio staple, and The Music Man has to agree!
Fabio uploaded the duet on “Hotel California” to his YouTube channel, and it became his most popular upload by quite a margin. Fans gave plenty of praise below the video, adding comments such as “I’m a 70-year-old man and tears just started flowing from deep inside my soul” and “What makes this a perfect performance is that it’s not perfect, not Auto-Tuned, just natural. Loved it, great voices, great talent.”
Fabio and Allie have collaborated on a number of busking performances, several of which went viral. One of their most popular cuts is their take on the Jackson 5 hit “Never Can Say Goodbye.” The singers perform this tune in a four-piece band format, with the band adding such a tasteful and swinging groove to the retro hit. Allie takes the lead with the vocals here, really hitting the mark with some high-range vocals, while the dual guitar solo adds some style in the bridge.
Fabio Rodrigues is a busker who also goes by the name Fabulous Fabio. He hails from southern Brazil, near the border with Uruguay. Fabio began uploading his covers of popular songs to YouTube in November 2017. The Music Man readers might be interested to hear that Fabio scored his first viral video with his solo acoustic street performance of Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September.” This cover, which he released in June 2020, became his first upload to hit one million views. He has since released a number of viral videos, many of which feature him performing in the busking hotspot of Grafton Street in Dublin, Ireland.