For those who don’t know, James Arthur rose to fame after winning season nine of The X Factor.
In this video, he’s brilliantly disguised as an old man before competing in a live performance contest against another group called Tailormade. All the people who are gathered nearby think he’s just a really good busker when he’s actually a chart-topping artist playing a live show for next to nothing. I bet a lot of them listen to his music!
Although he sounds amazing, the people watching have no clue who he is.
In the secret busker challenge, James Arthur gets professionally disguised as an older man.
For those who don’t know, BBC’s Radio 1 created the secret busker challenge to give up and coming artists a chance to show off their talents. A minute into the video, you can see James Arthur sitting in a chair while they show a time-lapse of him getting a complete makeover.
When they’re done with the mask, you can’t even recognize the popular singer.
James patiently waits while the other band starts to perform in the middle of the crowded train station. They sound pretty good, but when James Arthur starts to play, people are absolutely breathless.
When James Arthur starts playing music, everyone in the train station stops what they’re doing to watch.
A crowd starts to gather as soon as his powerful voice starts streaming through the air. Onlookers can’t believe the quality of music coming from the old man busker, and they start putting money in his guitar case.
Without knowing it’s the famous singer, a group gathers to watch the performance from the front row. Many people pull out their phones to start filming him!
It’s pretty obvious who won the busker challenge—mask or not, James Arthur is incredible!
Tailormade gave it their all, but you can tell by the crowd’s reaction that old man James won the contest. It turned into a real live concert the second he started playing!
The secret busker challenge quickly went viral on YouTube as viewers couldn’t get enough of James dressed as someone’s grandpa. Many people couldn’t believe he was so good live, with just him and his guitar.
Over 14.2 million people have viewed the video of James playing in an old man costume.
Since it was posted, more than 3,700 people left comments on the viral video.
“James’ voice and emotion was WAYYY better. Some people just have IT. and when they sing and play it’s miles above imitation. Can’t be replicated. It’s as if their soul is singing, not just their vocal chords. He has it.”
“This is so awesome. He’s incredible without a studio behind him. Just the fact that he can do out there in the cold without anything other than a guitar and his voice and sound that amazing blows my mind. He’s incredible.”
At the end of the secret busker challenge, James counts up the money he made from the breathtaking performance.
When it was all said and done, James Arthur didn’t make quite what he’s used to. For his entire terrific live show, he netted a whopping 33 Euros! Given how talented he is, that’s pretty sad. His cover was blown, so that probably didn’t help.
In all, this is a really cool challenge! I wonder if any of the unknown acts ever beat the celebrity singers. To see James Arthur perform like an old-timer, watch the video below!
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