Sefa Emre Ilikli’s violin cover of Lady Gaga’s ‘Applause’ started simply. Standing in front of a plain background in a white t-shirt, he began to play. His interpretation of the song was unique, with Sefa playing his violin over a synth backing beat. However, things started to get even more interesting when white face paint appeared in the middle of Sefa’s face. What followed was a spectacle that embraced Lady Gaga’s artistry and will have Music Man fans adoring this musician’s creativity.
As Sefa continued to play, the face paint grew over his face until he was covered in blues, yellows, and reds. All the while, his playing grew too, becoming more energetic and complex, as he added his own flourishes and unique touches to his interpretation. It is clear that Sefa was truly inspired by Lady Gaga’s entire approach to her artistry, and not just her music. The video of his cover now has an impressive 1.4M views, with fans calling the cover “so visually and musically creative.”
What made his cover truly special to me was that he had not only captured the song and made it his own but captured the spirit of the original artist and leaned into it in his own unique way. By performing the cover, he paid tribute to Gaga’s music, and his face paint paid tribute to her experimental artistry. However, what made the performance truly special to me was seeing how he interpreted those elements in his own style, also capturing Gaga’s spirit of individuality.
While Safe has other videos on his channel that are fairly simplistic, serving to highlight his impressive musical talent, many of his videos also have an added visual artistic element, offering viewers the opportunity to see another side of his creativity. Music Man readers who want to see more should definitely check out his cover of Camille Saint-Saëns’s ‘Dance Macabre’, as he once again uses face paint to fully capture the morbid themes and foreboding feeling of the song.
Through his online posts, Safe Emre Ilikli has proven himself to be a multi-talented artist. Not only is he an astonishingly talented and skilled violinist, but also a talented and skilled performer and video creator. The inclusion of all these skills in his work allows him to create an audiovisual spectacle that sets his unique style of interpretation apart, allowing him to bring his unique creativity to the forefront of everything he does.