When Lianne La Havas hit the stage to perform her rendition of Aretha Franklin’s “I Say a Little Prayer,” the crowd’s reaction to her solo performance absolutely said it all. The crowd instantly began singing along as La Havas delivered a soul tour de force with her breathtaking vocals. La Havas effortlessly brought her own style to the classic tune, and her voice combined with her vibey guitar playing to make a magical experience.
La Havas created a charming moment at the start of the third verse, when she had the crowd join the fun by singing the backing vocal part. The audience then began clapping to the beat of the London talent’s guitar rhythm, creating the perfect ending to the special performance. It takes a bold singer to take on the songs of the late great Aretha Franklin, but The Music Man has to say that La Havas really did justice to the Queen of Soul’s music here.
With such a strong performance, it probably won’t come as a surprise that La Havas scored one of her most popular videos on YouTube with her “I Say a Little Prayer” cover, putting 10 million views on the board. Fans gave big props for the performance, adding comments such as “I love this rendition she did so much, definitely at the same caliber as Aretha’s. Any song coming out of this woman’s mouth will be ethereal” and “Her stopping to ask everyone to do the backing vocals is exactly the reason I love her.”
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La Havas’s most popular live cut on YouTube is her NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert, which packs a whole lotta soul power into a 14-minute set. The British singer-songwriter took a delightfully minimalist approach to her Tiny Desk Concert, with just a pianist and a backing vocalist for accompaniment. This was def a smart approach, as when you have a voice like La Havas’s, you don’t need a big production behind it to make it shine.
Lianne Charlotte Barnes, who performs under the name Lianne La Havas, is a 35-year-old British singer-songwriter who was born on August 23, 1989. She was born in London to a Jamaican mother and Greek father, and cites her parents’ varied music tastes as being a key inspiration to her songwriting. The Music Man readers might be interested to hear that La Havas signed to Warner Records in 2010, and released her debut album Is Your Love Big Enough? in 2012. She scored a UK Gold certification with her debut, and a Silver certification with her 2015 follow-up Blood. Her most recent album is her self-titled 2020 effort, which was her third consecutive album to hit the UK top 10.