Each December, Sondre Lerche dons a Santa hat and gifts the world with a new cover song, oftentimes choosing to take on one of the year’s biggest tracks. Previously, he tackled Sia’s “Chandelier”, our #5 pick for Top Songs of 2014. This time around, the Norwegian singer-songwriter’s set his sights on Drake’s “Hotline Bling”, which we recently crowned the 6th best cut of 2015. (Lerche has exquisite taste, clearly.)
“What the world needs now, is not yet another cover of ‘Hotline Bling’, sweet lord,” Lerche says in a lengthy accompanying message. “But there’s no other huge song of 2015 I had wanted to sing more than Drake’s irrational, wounded instant classic. So deal with it, and I’ll at least spare you any further analysis, except to say it’s a truly magnetic piece of music.” Apparently, the bubbly, ’80s-leaning take was pieced together in a “mere 10 dark hours” in Bergen, Norway last night.
Listen to the cover below.
And read Lerche’s full message:
Produced, mixed and mastered by Matias Téllez at Skogen Studio. Cover image by Paal Strand.
What the world needs now, is not yet another cover of Hotline Bling, sweet lord. But there’s no other huge song of 2015 I had wanted to sing more than Drake’s irrational, wounded instant classic. So deal with it, and I’ll at least spare you any further analysis, except to say it’s a truly magnetic piece of music. My version was produced, recorded and mixed by Matias Tellez (Hotline Bling is one of his favorite songs of the year too) last night in Bergen, Norway in a mere 10 dark hours. At the end of the night we were quite fried, borderline hallucinating, and a nod to Milton Nascimento’s immortal “Clube Da Esquina No 2” snuck into the outro. I believe this is the sixth annual Christmas cover I share with my dear followers and fans, who continue to be spirited, loyal, engaging and full of wonder as our paths cross out there, on and off stage, in various spheres and in the songs themselves. Thank you for listening, caring and sharing my music where you are. It matters to me. Everything does. Here’s to yet another year that hopefully, despite terrifying, dark forces seeking to corrupt and confuse, will see us inspire each other to even greater heights, above, beyond.
Happy holidays & thanks for listening.
All the best,
-SL
