For the first single off his upcoming debut album Wide Awake, 2009 X Factor winner Joe McElderry has covered “Ambitions,” a grand slice of uplifting pop originally performed by Norwegian band Donkeyboy. Hear Joe’s version (plus see his album cover) and watch the video for the original after the jump.
Joe McElderry - Ambitions
We have to hand it to Joe—this is a surprising (in a good way!) switch-up in sound after his X Factor winners’ song, a by-the-numbers cover of Miley Cyrus’ “The Climb.”
“I like to have fun on stage so I wanted an up-tempo song. It’s more fresh and fun, feel-good and young,” 19-year-old McElderry is quoted as saying in The Sun. “It represents me as a person.”
Just one thing, though—why is Simon Cowell having this kid do so many covers of recent songs? “Ambitions” was a #1 hit in Norway for Donkeyboy only last year.
Here’s the video for the original:
McElderry’s cover of “Ambitions” will be released in the UK on October 11. A music video for the single was shot earlier this month by director Nigel Dick in Bulgaria, according to Digital Spy.
And here’s the cover of Wide Awake, which is out October 25:
Do you like Joe’s take on “Ambitions”?
Ugh I’m disappointed. I love the Donkeyboy version — probably my favorite song of 2010 so far — so I’m biased. But what’s worst is that the XFactor and Idol franchises can’t come up with anything better than covering such recent songs.
This is the original Donkeyboy video, which is so perfectly depressing and Scandinavian. And it works so much better with the song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_WQ6u9os50
You can hardly hear his voice through all the production. Album cover is fantastice, however.
This is scandalous! Yet another cover from Joe. It only helps to give the impression that all he can do is pale imitations of other people’s originals; and with this cover being so close both in time and in content to the original by DONKEYBOY, one has to question where is the integrity in all this as an artist. Poor, very poor …
DONKEYBOY writes beautiful pop tunes – I only hope to God that this copycat cover- generates more attention towards the rest of their album.
There are at least 5 very very good tunes on there -
Sometimes, Stereolife, We cant Hide, Promise Kept…
Joe´s falsetto doesnt sound right.. like he is 12
Agree..
Check out Sometimes, Stereolife, We cant Hide, Promise Kept… close to pop classics