It’s not often that men cover songs that were originally sung by a female. And it’s even rarer for those covers to be good since they are singing in different keys than the original song. But Fernando Daniel’s cover of Adele’s “When We Were Young” is an absolute exception.
Not only does he do the song justice but he’s able to give the song new life from his own point of view.
Daniel, a singer-songwriter from born and raised in Estarreja, Portugal, sang the song for his audition on The Voice Portugal’s fourth season in 2016.
According to Wikipedia, Daniel participated in the second edition of The X Factor Portugal in the Babel duo and was one of four finalists that finished fourth.
Daniel’s performance of “When We Were Young” not only stunned the judges but the world.
He got all four judges to spin their chairs around. Not only that, but they also looked like they were about to bust out crying hysterically. One of the judges even left their chair and ran up to him to give him a big hug after his performance.
Daniel’s soul touching performance even had viewers all verklempt and they immediately took to social media to cheer him on.
“The Voice Portugal started again and I’m on the floor with this guy,” one Twitter user wrote.
fernando daniel, a contestant on the voice portugal, performed when we were young by adele and i’m in tears pic.twitter.com/ZXCRFG2pTS
— j (@gIumkid) September 5, 2016
The YouTube video for Daniel’s audition got more than 20 million views.
Daniel also covered another female artist’s song for his final performance Sia’s “Chandelier” and it was just as spectacular as his Adele cover. That video got about 3 million views.
Daniel went on to win the fourth season of The Voice with his Sia cover and Callum Scott’s “Dancing On My Own.” After winning The Voice he competed for the RTP Festival of Song 2017 so he could participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 where he reached fifth place.
If he ended up in fifth place the other contestants must have been Michael Jackson quality performers because Daniel is a true talent, one that is capable of doing the music justice. We look forward to seeing him become an international superstar in the future. You can check out his tour dates on his Facebook page here.
