Taiwanese musician Nini Music dropped the cover metalheads didn’t know we needed in our lives, which is her viral “Asian folk metal cover” of The Cranberries’ classic hit “Zombie.” The American-based musician began her arrangement by playing the sanxian, and the traditional Chinese lute gave a spellbinding ancient atmosphere to Dolores O’Riordan’s iconic opening melody. Nini, dressed like a heavy metal princess, fittingly accentuated the traditional vibe of the opening by performing in rustic outdoor scenes.
There was a twist coming, though, as soon a distorted electric guitar crept in, before a full heavy metal band stormed into the song. Nini then showed off her multi-talented musical skills by shredding a heavy metal solo on her custom-made hybrid electric lute. Nini arranged, performed, and recorded the entire piece herself, and deservingly scored a 3.3 million view viral video for her troubles. The Music Man always has time for creative takes on the classics, and Nini scored our YouTube sub with this one!
Nini uploaded her “Zombie” cover to YouTube on September 21, 2024, and it has since become her second-most popular video. Fans were stoked on the unique cover and added comments such as “My metric for covers of The Cranberries is ‘Do I think Dolores would like this?’ I think she would absolutely love this” and “I was really impressed with how the more traditional part really did capture the feeling of heartbreak in the song.”
Nini has a real knack for picking compelling covers to do in her distinctive style. Her third-most popular upload is her “Asian folk cover” of Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound Of Silence.” In this achingly beautiful acoustic cover, Nini and her guest Joy play the traditional Chinese instruments, the zhongruan and erhu, respectively. The video stands out not only due to the duo’s musical skills, but also Nini’s skill for making her uploads really pop with compelling performance videos.
Nini is a musician from Taichung, Taiwan, who is now based in Arizona. Nini has mastered several Chinese folk instruments and combines their traditional sounds in her arrangements with rock, metal, and EDM elements. The Music Man readers might be interested to hear that she has scored popular videos on YouTube with not only her covers but also her original music uploads. Nini has amassed 263,000 subscribers on YouTube since she started uploading in September 2019. She also gained wider recognition for her musical skills after appearing on America’s Got Talent in 2024. She gained high praise from the judges with her audition and made it through the deliberations before being subsequently eliminated in the quarterfinals.