YouTube star Will Gittens was born in Trinidad and Tobago. He is the son of singer /songwriter Sterling Gittens. When Will was eight, in 2000, the Gittens family moved to Nashville, Tennessee. A graduate of Berklee College of Music, Will began posting covers to YouTube in 2011, and Vine in 2014. When Vine shut down in 2017, he had 1.6M followers. As of August 2023, Gittens has 595K YouTube followers. More impressively, he has 22 songs with over 1M YouTube views.
The consistency of support for Will Gittens’ YouTube releases is remarkable for any artist, never mind an independent artist. Even acts that have been placed on commercial music charts seldom have so many videos with over 1M views. Singer-songwriter Gittens releases original songs as well as his popular acoustic covers. He plays guitar, bass, and drums and is known for his soulful, sultry voice. Our first video is Gittens’ 2019 cover of Lewis Capaldi’s smash hit Someone You Loved. Enjoy.
When he posted the video, Will Gittens commented that he felt it was the best cover he had ever done. Many fans agree. Michimadiforever writes, “This guy is so good consistently, don’t know why he is not a huge star. His voice is so smooth with just the perfect amount of styling and he’s great on his acoustic”. UdonsiYT says, “Man you added the soul to this song. I had to watch it over and over again”. The best comment is from ALI-qv2ic, “If I have a voice like him, I WOULD NEVER SHUT UP!”
Will Gittens latest original release is the ultra sensual track, My Bed, released on 28 July 2023. The song is influenced by contemporary Afro-beat and features a cameo from Ibraah (Ibrahim Abdallah Nampunga), a rising singer from Tanzania. The Swahili interludes really enhance the song, and together with the beat-based backing, make this song an entirely different beast compared to Gittens’ extensive catalogue of acoustic covers. Let’s give My Bed a listen.
Will and his brother JR Gittens, who tends to be more in the background, have set up an independent music company, JB Entertainment. Speaking of the reggaeton, Afro beats, and soca influences in his original music Will says: “My brother and I have been blessed to travel in places like Africa and Europe. Going to certain clubs and venues and hearing the music being pumped out there, we are always looking at the music that people are reacting to, what kind of rhythm they are getting excited about to start dancing. We are always going back to the drawing board saying hmm, how can we make this better, how can we make people dance, how can we make them feel something they never felt before.”
With the help of JR, Will has released several EPs, with the influence of their Trinidad roots and the music of the African diaspora becoming ever more prominent. Will Gittens is primed and ready for a breakout international hit. In the meantime, he continues to release his soulful acoustic covers of popular songs on YouTube. Here is the latest, from 13 August 2023.
If you would like to see more from Will Gittens, you can subscribe to his YouTube channel or follow him on Facebook.