It’s not easy to cover a song and do it justice. Every time someone posts a cover of a song, they worry whether they did justice to the emotion of the original. The emotion is something songwriters and performers care deeply about, and nailing it is their priority.
This little boy covered a deeply emotional song, “Empty Chairs At Empty Tables” from Les Miserables. I would definitely say he did it justice.
Now, that’s a pretty bold song choice. The context of the song is nothing but depressing and heartbreaking. In the live-action adaptation, the song was performed by Eddie Redmayne.
Redmayne did a fantastic job conveying the sorrow woven into the song’s lyrics.
Now, after the likes of Eddie Redmayne and Michael Ball, Cormac Thompson is taking a shot at the song.
Thompson is currently 13, but was 12 when he recorded this stunning cover.
His voice is not baritone like some performers who’ve covered the song. Don’t expect the same bass-y tones that you might here elsewhere.
But in place of that, Cormac brings a haunting, angelic feeling with his voice. Those higher pitches lend themselves well to the image of a sad child.
Though of course, the character in the story is no child.
Yet despite his voice being way too youthful for the context of the song, Thompson still knocks it out of the park.
In fact, Cormac may indeed have something to be sorrowful about.
This cover, and many others, are dedicated to workers whose lives were hit hard by the COVID Pandemic.
It’s hard to imagine if things will ever go back to normal. The past 3 years have been the greatest challenge many of us have ever faced.
Some parts of the song do hit close to home if you’ve lost someone to COVID, or know someone who did. Grief is a universal feeling and it’s never been more widely felt than the last 3 years.
“Oh, my friends, my friends, forgive me
That I live and you are gone
There’s a grief that can’t be spoken
There’s a pain goes on and on”
So you can’t say there’s nothing “miserable” about these times.
“This ‘Les Mis’ classic was Cormac’s charity single in aid of ‘Acting For Others’, a charity providing support to theatre workers, especially needed after the COVID lockdowns for which he raised around £3,000.” said his channel in the description of the video.
Cormac got busy with music during lockdown. He couldn’t visit his family in Northern Ireland at the time. He’d then get to sing on Britain’s Got Talent and perform a concern at Royal Albert Hall.
His cover sits at several hundred thousand views right now.
Cormac’s voice is enchanting. Let’s hope puberty doesn’t affect his voice too much.
But hey, if his voice gets deeper from puberty, maybe he can cover the same song again and see if he sounds closer to the likes of Redmayne and Michael Ball!
Watch his enchanting cover of “Empty Chairs At Empty Tables” down below. Please give this article a share too!
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