Jimmy Wong Wins Second Round of Cover Wars 7

With an impressive group of YouTube artists, Jimmy Wong edged out Eli Lieb and Walk Off The Earth featuring Roomie.  It is now time for you choose the winner of this month's Cover Wars competition.  

So who will take home the Gold Record this month?  Will it be the endearing love ballad by Jimmy, or the powerful pop version by Petie that will win you over? You decide.

The final round begins today 9/19/2011 and will end this Saturday, 09/24/11.  I will declare the winner on Sunday, the 25th.

Cover Wars 6 Winner Abraham Lim

On this day I will personally email the winner their Cover Wars Gold Record.  It's not an actual vinyl record, but a recognition award congratulating them for their amazing talent and their win; So your vote is really important.

Here are your final two contestants battling it out with their covers of Lady Gaga's, "Edge of Glory."

Round One Winner, Petie Pizarro

Round Two Winner, Jimmy Wong

To vote, simply leave me a comment indicating which artist you think deserves the win for the second round of the competition.

Petie Pizarro Wins First Round of Cover Wars 7

Petie Pizarro's vocal talents outweighed those of Nick Pitera by a mere vote.  In a vote of 8 to 7, Petie will be competing against this week's round 2 winner, and what a challenge he's up against.  As I mentioned in my initial blog, all these artists are truly amazing, so if you want Petie to win in the finals you'll need to vote.

The second round begins today (9/11/11), and consists of another six covers to Lady Gaga's  "Edge of Glory." You will have 7 days to vote on this round which will end on 9/17/11.  The top two finalists from the previous week and this week will compete in a final competition which will take place from September 18-24, 2011.

Cover Wars 6 Winner Abraham Lim

The winner will be declared the following day, September 25, 2011. On this day I will personally email the winner their Cover Wars Gold Record.  It's not an actual vinyl record, but a recognition award congratulating them for their amazing talent and their win; So your vote is really important.

Meet Group 2 of the Cover Wars 7 contestants, a group of talented artists I chose to start the second round of this month's Cover War! 

Top left to right: Eli Lieb, Jake Coco & Alexandra Amor, Jimmy Wong;

Bottom left to right: Teo & Nick, Fynn Farrell, Walk off The Earth ft. Roomie

To vote, simply leave me a comment indicating which artist you think deserves the win for the second round of the competition.

To listen to Petie Pizarro's cover of Edge of Glory, or wish to purchase his song on iTunes, check him out after the jump...

Cover Wars 7

This has got to be the most difficult Cover War to date.  I spent 2 hours on Sunday listening to over 100 covers of Lady Gaga's "Edge of Glory," and I never grew tired of listening to it.  

All the artists in this month's war deserve a standing ovation, hell they each deserve a Cover Wars Album, they are all absolutely amazing!  I cried as I watched a cover of a boy with Cerebral Palsy and it made it even harder for me to pick these Top 12 people.  He didn't make the top 12, but I will tell you this... the courage alone was enough to make anyone vote for him.

Cover Wars 6 Winner Abraham Lim

This month's Cover War is going to be a little different, and I may do it like this from now on.  I am posting six covers of "Edge of Glory" today and you will have 7 days (until 9/10/11) to vote for the best out of these six.  The second round begins the next day (9/11/11), and will consist of another six covers to the same song; You will also have 7 days to vote on this round which will end on 9/17/11.  The top two finalists from the previous two weeks will compete in a final competition which will take place from September 18-24, 2011.

The winner will be declared the following day, September 25, 2011. On this day I will personally email the winner their Cover Wars Gold Record.  It's not an actual vinyl record, but a recognition award congratulating them for their amazing talent and their win; So your vote is really important.

Meet Group 1 of the Cover Wars 7 contestants, a group of talented artists I chose to start the first round of this month's Cover War! 

Top left to right: Neilo Rose, Alana DeBlase, Petie Pizarro;

Bottom left to right: Nick Pitera, Jay Loftus, Drew Chambers

To vote, simply leave me a comment indicating which artists you think deserves the win for the first round of the competition.

Abraham Lim Responds to Cover Wars Win!

 Update:  Abraham Lim responds to Cover Wars win.

thank you!

Hi Blade7184!

I had no idea that I had won the Cover Wars - how crazy! All of those guys are so talented, so I'm flattered and humbled that such a thing was able to come about.

I visited your blog and I just wanted to say, keep doing what you love. I love my gay fans so much and their support means a lot to me, so thank you for spreading the word on my behalf.

Hope you're well. Thanks again!

Abraham

P.S. Seems as though you're a Lady Gaga fan, so I just wanted to attach my new video, in which I cover her new single, 'You & I'. Hope you like it despite the morning voice :/

3:52

You & I - Abraham Lim (Cover - Lady Gaga)

Facebook Fanpage: http://www.facebook.com/the...
Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ther...
Accompanying Blog: http://silim.tumblr.com/pos...

This is for anyone who needs a person in their life to remind them that in spite of whatever imperfection they may possess and how many missteps that they may make throughout their lifetime, that everything will be okay. Love you all so much. I hope you like it.

Cover Wars 6 - The Results

The results are in, and the Gold Record this month goes to Abraham Lim.  His rendition of Adele's "Someone Like You" was up against 5 other covers to this song. In the end he managed to edge out fellow singer, Eli Lieb by one vote.  I have notified Abraham of his win this morning.

I thought everyone did a fantastic job with Adele's song, and I would definitely buy all their covers.  Thanks to Sean Rumsey, Eli Lieb, Benjamin, Chris Kennedy from The Shures, and Nick Gardner, who "I" put up against a formidable opponent.  This in no way undermines your awesome vocal abilities, you were all great.

And finally, a big "thank you" goes out to all my readers for taking the time to vote on this month's Cover War.

Congratulations Abraham!  If you ever "Google" your name or a cover to a particular song, and you somehow manage to stumble upon my blog, I wish you the very best on your endeavours.

Let's listen to your cover once more...

Cover Wars 6

I can't believe it's been a month since my last Cover Wars post, but after listening to Adele's CD on my way to work this morning, I had to feature a Cover War using another one of her songs.  You may recall my very first issue featured Adele's "Rolling In The Deep."

Once again, it was a very difficult decision to make, so I went with only the guys for this battle.  The girls were fantastic, but I can only do so much. Maybe I will feature them at a later time, but for now, the war is on...

These are the top 6 guys I felt did an awesome job of covering Adele's, "Someone Like You."  Sean Rumsey, Abraham Lim, Eli Lieb, Benjamin, Chris Kennedy from The Shures, and Nick Gardner

The contest ends next Thursday, August 11, and the winner will receive a Cover Wars Gold Record that I will personally email them.  It's not an actual vinyl record, but a recognition award just for being on my blog, so your vote is really important.

 

 

Cover Wars 4 - Winner

Cover Wars 5 - The Results

So the results are in for my first ever, Cover Wars by Category issue.  It was a close call between the group and teen performances, but overall each performance was fantastic.  You have to remember, I chose what I felt was the best of the best, and you decided which of them were the winners.

Each contestant sang their own cover of "Grenade" by Bruno Mars, and in the end, the winners were...

Lion Named Roar for Best Group Performance.  While many of you were impressed with Lawson's version of the song, Lion Named Roar came out on top as the best all-around sound, and I couldn't agree more, the vocals were great, the music was great, and the video was great.  Congrats Lion Named Roar!

As for the Best Female Performance, Lisa Lavie won this hands down, her unique voice made it all the better for her in the end.  Her strong vocals, accompanied with some great music, made it an even easier choice.  Giving it her emotional best, Lisa was the clear choice.  Congrats Lisa!

In the Best Male Performance category, it was the hot-looking "nerdy" guy, Alex Goot vs. the ever popular, Jason Chen.  Alex definitely provided a shocking element to his performance, his voice! The music was amazing, his playing the guitar, the piano and the drums added to a great video performance as well.  There  definitely was no competing with Alex, he won this hands down.  Congrats Alex!

 For Best Teen Performance, my readers were stuck between two teenage boys who gave it their all, Marko Stantic and Jordan Jansen.  In the end, Jordan took this home.  His unique voice, the emotion he provided, and the video accompanying the song, garnered him enough votes to take home the Gold Record.  Remarkable voice, remarkable performance, congrats Jordan!


Once again, here are your Cover War winners singing their cover to "Grenade"...

As promised, each winner will be sent an image of their Cover Wars "Gold Record."  It's a fictional image of my Cover Wars logo and a Gold Album embedded in a black frame. I created this image specifically for this series.  

This is also the first issue where I have sent the winner a personalized image of their Cover Wars album.

Cover Wars 5

Cover Wars is going to be real interesting this time around...

There were so many covers to this song that I couldn't post every single one of them against each other.   So, because all of them were unique in their own way, I separated them into vocalist categories; Best Group, Best Male, Best Female, and Best Teen.  

Last Week's Winner

Each of the category winners will get a Cover Wars Gold Record that I will personally email them.  It's not an actual vinyl record, but a recognition award just for being on my blog, so your vote is really important. 

It was a difficult decision, but I chose the "best of the best" out of the videos below.  After listening to over 200 covers over the weekend, I chose 50 that I liked, and managed to get it down to 22.  At this point it was becoming really, really difficult, because I liked every one of them.  This morning I came up with the idea of making it a "win by category" issue, and once again, as hard as it was, I was able to bring it down to 10 covers.  I tried to bring the Group category down to two, but I couldn't.

The song being covered is "Grenade" by Bruno Mars.  I think that everyone who has ever dated, been in a relationship, or has been married can relate to this song.  The lyrics speak for themselves:

Gave you all I had
And you tossed it in the trash
You tossed it in the trash, you did
To give me all your love is all I ever asked,
Cause what you don't understand is
I’d catch a grenade for ya (yeah, yeah, yeah)
Throw my hand on a blade for ya (yeah, yeah, yeah)
I’d jump in front of a train for ya (yeah, yeah , yeah)
You know I'd do anything for ya (yeah, yeah, yeah)

In order to vote, all you have to do is leave a comment, and paste the following into the message:

Group Category: 

Female Category: 

Male Category: 

Teen Category: 

Type who you're voting for next to each category. The names are down below to the left of each video.  I hope you enjoy listening to these covers as much as I did.  Thank you for your cooperation. - Blade aka Peter

Group Category:

Before You Exit

Lawson

Lion Named Roar

Skyline

Female Category:

Lisa Lavie
Dana

Male Category:

Alex Goot

Jason Chen

Teen Category:

Marko Stantic

Jordan Jansen

Cover Wars 4 - The Results

I didn't have very many voters this week, but Eypee did manage to pull out a win for his rendition of Pink's hit song, "Fuckin Perfect."  He was up against Peter from the Czech Republic and Marina Braga from Brazil.  The total tally was Eypee 3, Marina 2, and Peter 1.

Congratulations Eypee!  If you ever "Google" your name or a cover to a particular song, and you somehow manage to stumble upon my blog, I wish you the very best on your endeavours.  

- Blade aka Peter

Let's listen to the cover once more...

Cover Wars - Issue No. 4

Cover Wars 4 is here, and figuring out who of these 3 will take home the Gold Record is up to you.  I really had a difficult time finding a good cover to P!nk's "F**kin Perfect."  It is, by far, one of my most favorite songs of the past year, and for me, it is up there with "Born This Way," "Jar of Hearts," and "Rolling in The Deep."

One of the main reasons I love this song so much, is because it deals with suicide, and the yearning for acceptance in this world.  I grew up with thoughts of suicide as a gay adolescent, and up to my early twenties; Let me tell you something, it's not a good feeling to have. 

While, many on the right have changed the song to reflect their "Christian" values, or make it about their "relationships," it isn't about that.  Don't get me wrong, there were some excellent covers out there, but I had so much trouble finding a good cover, because of that reason.  It isn't about "less, less than perfect!"  It's "pretty pretty please, don't you ever feel, like your less than f**kin perfect!"

It was the same way with "Born This Way."  Removing the lyrics, or changing them to reflect your own life makes it really difficult when the song is trying to send a different message.  I'm not being hypocritical here.  I mean, there are songs out there where the gender role was changed from "he" to "she," or "her" to "him." I think that's okay, so long as the main message or point is getting across.

Pink quoted,

"Cutting, and suicide, two very different symptoms of the same problem, are gaining on us. (the problem being; alienation and depression. the symptoms; cutting and suicide). I personally don't know a single person who doesn't know at least two of these victims personally." - P!nk.

She also goes on to explain,

"that, while the video may be considered shocking, it is intended to open people's eyes to these problems. In addition, P!nk believes the video is a message to everyone who needs help. Pink described the process of making the video as a “very emotional experience” and related the core theme of “Fuckin' Perfect” to her yet-to-be-born baby, saying, “I have a life inside of me, and I want her or him to know that I will accept him or her with open and loving and welcoming arms. And though I will prepare this little munchkin for a sometimes cruel world, I will also equip this kid to see all the beauty in it as well.” She also noted that she expects the video to “Ruffle some feathers,” meaning it would cause controversy."

Get this through your f**kin heads people.  You need to learn to accept your child for who, and what he is.  If he acts a little girly, and likes to play with dolls, let him.  If he walks or talks a little funny, who gives a shit.  If he grows up loving sports, but you find out he only likes boys - big f**kn deal, He's f**kin perfect!  He or she is your child through and through. No blood about it!

Here are  your top 3 battling it out for the top spot.  I cant decide on who I want to win, so I'm asking for your help.  please make sure to leave a comment with your vote.

First one on the list is Peter from the Czech Republic, followed by Eypee from Berlin, Germany; with the final competitor being Marina Braga from Brazil.

Cover Wars 3 - The Results

Sam Tsui has taken the crown once again, he won the rematch over Ben Chambers for his cover of "Jar of Hearts" by Christina Perri.  He was originally competing for the title against 15 other contestants last Thursday, but when the competition ended on Wednesday, the contest resulted in a tie.

After the rematch this week, and with only 13 votes, Sam Tsui took the Cover Wars Gold Album with 7 out of the 13 votes cast.  This is the first time I actually created an award for the winner; Before it was just winning the title.

Congratulations Sam!  If you ever "Google" your name or a cover to a particular song, and you somehow manage to stumble upon my blog, I wish you the very best on your endeavours.

Let's listen to the cover once more...

And the Cover Wars Winner Is....

NO ONE!  It was a tie! This only means one thing....There has to be a tie-breaker!

After 21 votes, the Cover War between 16 YouTubers was decided by you, so we now have to vote and see which artist is better. Our current reigning champ, Sam Tsui, or Ben Chambers.

I have posted the two covers for, 'Jar of Hearts' down below.  I will reveal the results this Saturday, so make sure you vote.

      Sam Tsui          vs.         Ben Chambers

Jar of Hearts by Christina Perri

Cover Wars - Issue No. 3

It was during a dance routine by Billy and Kaitlyn on So You Think You Can Dance, that introduced us to Christina Perri's hit song, Jar of Hearts.  The moment I heard it, I loved it.  

I've experienced so much of what the song is trying to convey.  I dated guys who were with me for only 2 or 3 months, then they'd leave. It was heart breaking.  Furthermore, you'd see them with someone else a week or so later, crushing your heart even further.  Then, they'd leave them too.  These guys were just collecting their "jar of hearts," because unbeknownst to them, they were breaking people's hearts without a care in the world. I thank God everyday for giving me Ryan, who's been with me for 6 years!

This is only my third issue of the series, because of the amount of time it takes me to put this together.  The premise behind "Cover Wars" is to get your opinion on who you think is the "best of the best" when a YouTube artist performs a cover to a popular hit, like Adele's current song, "Rolling in the Deep" or Madonna's, "Like A Prayer".

This week's battle has an unprecedented 16 contenders. I literally went through several hundred covers of Perri's song, to find the ones I wanted competing against each other. I chose 36 covers, and out of those 36, I siphoned out 20.  It is now up to you to decide which of these 16 wins the battle.  Out of all these, one of them made me shed a tear, can you guess which one that was?

I have listed each of the contestants in the playlist from 1-16, starting with the current reigning champ, Sam Tsui, and his cover of Jar of Hearts.

01. Sam Tsui

02. Maddi Jane

03. Quanah

04. Kait Weston feat. Tyler Ward on Guitar

05. Matt Beilis

06. Sara Neimietz

07. Kris Cunningham feat. Sophie Lowe

08. Tiago Braga

09. Ebony & Anth

10. Step aka Fonzy91

11. Alex G. feat. Jeff Hendrick on Guitar

12. Umberto aka emotionsinfluences

13. Brandon Skeie

14. Omar

15. Kevin

16. Ben Chambers

Cover Wars - Issue No. 2

UPDATE: Sam Tsui wins cover war! - See Comments

Last week, I started my new series, "Cover Wars," and I had so much fun putting it together, I even designed the headline pic up above.

The premise behind "Cover Wars" is to get your opinion on who you think is the "best of the best" when a YouTube artist performs a cover to a popular hit, like Adele's current song, "Rolling in the Deep" or Madonna's, "Like A Prayer".

This week's battle song is Lady Gaga's, "Born This Way". Currently one of her number 1 tracks, Gaga's Born This Way album hits stores on May 23rd.

For the second round of my new series I have chosen 6 people or duos to battle it out, Sam Tsui, Tyler Ward feat. Alex G., Wesley Avery, Peter Hollens, Marius Gröh from Germany, and Ben feat. Josh.

Who do you think will win this war?

             Sam Tsui                       Tyler Ward featuring Alex G.

Wesley Avery                               Peter Hollens

   Marius Gröh                               Ben featuring Josh

Cover Wars - Issue No. 1

UPDATE: Drew Chambers wins first cover war!

As part of my new series, "Cover Wars," I would like to initiate the series with one of my favorite songs of the year, "Rolling in The Deep" by Adele.  It's from her new album, "21".

The premise behind "Cover Wars" is to get your opinion on who you think is the "best of the best" when performing a cover to a particular artist.  

Today I chose, Drew Chambers and Kris Cunningham feat. Natalia Brown to compete in the first round of my new series.

Who do you think has won this war?