The month of September has come to a close, which means that BBC Radio One’s Live Lounge Month has also finished. If you’re unfamiliar with the concept, Radio One get famous artists to come and perform a short live set of a few hits, and then the artists have to perform a cover song in their set. Some artists choose a classic track, some choose a recent hit, some impersonate the original, whilst others recreate the song completely. In the past month some of the biggest acts in the world have performed covers for Radio One, but to save you some time I’ve waded through all the tracks and highlighted the top seven:

7. Mahalia – ‘Hold Me While You Wait’

Fresh off the release of her studio album, ‘Love and Compromise‘, Mahalia took on the Lewis Capaldi hit ‘Hold Me While You Wait‘. Mahalia turned the ballad into her own style of heartfelt R&B/slow-jam. Her voice sounds truly beautiful over the piano backing and as the instrumental builds up with more layers, it’s hard to remember the Capaldi original, with Mahalia transforming the song into such a smooth tune.

6. Anderson .Paak – ‘Old Town Road’

One of the coolest R&B stars out there, Anderson .Paak decided to put his own spin on Lil Nas X‘s song of the summer, ‘Old Town Road‘. Sat behind his drum kit with the accompaniment of two stellar backing vocalists, .Paak put his own spin on the country/rap track. For a song that has been overplayed all summer, I found myself fully engrossed in .Paak’s rendition, the only slight thing that ruined the cover was his poor attempt at an English accent during the breakdown of the song.

5. YUNGBLUD – ‘Señorita/Back to Black/Goosebumps’

Whilst most artist choose a single song to cover, for YUNGBLUD, one wasn’t enough, as the alternative-emo singer performed a medley of ‘Señorita‘ by Shawn Mendes and Camilla Cabello, ‘Back to Black‘ by Amy Winehouse and ‘Goosebumps‘ by Travis Scott. YUNGBLUD’s unique voice completely changes each track and they all could easily be his own hit songs. The addition of the violin part during ‘Goosebumps‘ is particularly effective and haunting, almost making me forget that I’m listening to a Travis Scott song.

4. Lewis Capaldi – ‘Yesterday’

Unlike all the other Live Lounge sets, Radio One got Lewis Capaldi to perform live in Liverpool with the accompaniment of a full orchestra. Capaldi chose to cover a track from The Beatles whilst in Liverpool, performing ‘Yesterday‘. Despite the different setting, the rendition is really amazing; Capaldi has had an absolutely massive 2019, and performing a Beatles cover in their home city isn’t an easy task, but he smashes it, proving his undeniable vocal talent.

3. Stormzy – ‘Brown Skin Girl’

Grime artist Stormzy chose an R&B track for his Live Lounge set, covering Beyoncé‘s ‘Brown Skin Girl‘ released earlier this year. What is most evident in this cover is how much Stormzy loves the track – for most of the performance he’s got a massive grin on his face, and the positive vibe of the track is just infectious, as Stormzy raps his own verse in the place of WIZKID in the original track. The lyrics of Stormzy’s verse are pretty adorable as he raps about his dreams of having a daughter, labelling himself a “Young Jigga looking forward to my Blue“, referencing Beyoncé’s husband Jay-Z (Jigga) and their daughter, Blue Ivy Carter.

2. Little Simz – ‘Both’

Little Simz didn’t just cover a song for her Live Lounge performance, instead she took Headie One‘s hit track ‘Both‘, and made it her own song completely. The instrumental on the original track is amazing, but Simz took the sample from Headie’s song and made it the chorus for her cover. Simz showcases her top class rapping ability, as she raps about her success so far, with the standout bar: “They say I’m the woman of the moment, tell ’em I’m the man of the year.” I know this is a cover, but I pray this gets some form of studio release, or perhaps she releases a remix of the Headie One original track, as this performance is incredible.

1. Dermot Kennedy – ‘Lover/Flashing Lights’

I’ll be honest, I’d never heard of Dermot Kennedy before hearing his mashup covering ‘Lover‘ by Taylor Swift alongside Kanye West‘s ‘Flashing Lights‘; that said, this performance blew me away. The track ‘Lover‘ is a pretty beautiful track as is, but with the addition of a string section in the live cover, as well as Dermot Kennedy’s heartfelt vocals, he truly makes the song his own. His singing in the chorus is particularly moving, as he really puts his all into every single word that he sings. But performing a flawless rendition of Swift’s track wasn’t enough for Kennedy, as he mashed the track up with a classic Kanye tune as well. Whilst his Taylor Swift cover is definitely stronger than the Kanye cover, Dermot Kennedy made the most of his Live Lounge cover – demonstrating his creativity, musical vision and vocal talent, which has easily earned him a fan in me.