Niall Horan And Fletcher Take On Taylor Swift’s ‘Lover’
The exclusive Spotify recording transforms the hit single into a power ballad.
Niall Horan and Fletcher have just released a dramatic cover of Taylor Swift’s hit song ‘Lover’, turning the introspective country-folk track into a captivating power-ballad duet. The song, released earlier today exclusively on Spotify, was recorded at Air Studios London for a Spotify Singles session.
The former One Direction member begins ‘Lover’ in the same vein as it was originally recorded – slow, steady and wistful. Horan’s labelmate, Fletcher, comes in at the 1:20 mark, offering a hint of country twang in her formidable vocals. By the time the two singers join forces at the chorus, the song is a full-out, emotionally-charged anthem, complete with electric guitars, keyboards and reverberating drums.
“It’s nice to get out of the comfort zone and try something different,” Horan said in a statement released earlier today by Rolling Stone. “When it came to deciding what song I was going to do, there was only one option for me. ‘Lover’ is one of my favourite songs I’ve heard in a long time and Taylor is a good friend. Let’s hope she likes it.”
The admiration was mutual: Swift offered her approval this morning on Instagram Stories, declaring, “This is absolutely STUNNING”.
This isn’t the first time that the title track off Swift’s newest album has been performed as a duet. In November, Swift released a remixed version of the song with new instrumentation and guest vocals from Shawn Mendes. A week later, the ‘Shake It Off’ singer-songwriter dropped another version, ‘Lover (First Dance Remix)’, which offered a romantic, orchestral arrangement of the song.
Great day recording a live version of no judgement and a cover of Lover by the lovely @taylorswift13 for @Spotify singles sessions https://t.co/prRCQITE1i pic.twitter.com/agLd5rMtge
— Niall Horan (@NiallOfficial) March 4, 2020
‘Lover’, which was a Top 10 hit across multiple countries, was named as one of the Best Songs of 2019 in over a dozen year-end lists, while it was nominated for Song of the Year at the 62nd annual Grammy Awards.
For the Spotify session, Horan also performed his song ‘No Judgement’, the third single off his forthcoming sophomore album, Heartbreak Weather, due out 13 March.
Pre-order Heartbreak Weather here.
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