James Arthur took “A Thousand Years” to a very special place with his majestic voice on this touching rendition of the hit with the Lufthansa Orchestra. When you hear his delectably husky tones on the Christina Perri Twilight hit, you might just agree that he made it his own! The way the English star caresses the melodies with his creamy baritone really hits the spot.
The performance was also notable as it was the first time in James’ career that he performed with a 65-piece orchestra. The combination of the band, their backing vocals and the orchestra created such a lush performance. You could tell that James really felt this was a big moment, and he went all out. The result is a performance that hits right in the chest and brings you to goosebumps territory big time. The Music Man has to say this is how you do a cover right!
James performed “A Thousand Years” at a Channel Aid concert in the Grand Hall of the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. Channel Aid’s YouTube upload of the cover has drawn around three million views.
One of our favourite James Arthur moments came when he did a secret busker prank with BBC Radio 1. The BBC Radio 1 team convincingly disguised James as an old man for the performance. That voice was undeniable, though, as James soon brought the busy train station almost to a standstill as commuters stopped to hear this golden-voiced old fella. It’s not only a great performance musically, but also quite hilarious because of how much fun the English singer has playing the part of “Big Willie McNulty,” the senior busker.
The Hamburg concert was not the first time James Arthur had garnered attention for his rendition of “A Thousand Years”. The X Factor winner issued a stripped-back piano rendition of the song in February 2023.
The Music Man readers might not be surprised to hear that this cover really hit the spot for fans, drawing 46 million views on YouTube. This has made it one of the most popular performance videos on his channel. It’s not an easy task to take a song from such a different type of vocalist and make it your own, but James really made it work so beautifully.