You know when you prepare yourself for something but you’re somehow still not prepared? That as me clicking play on this video.
There were some clues, namely, this tweet:
If what I was about to watch was enough to make this young choke then hot diggity it must be good.
And it was. Oh baby, it was.
After the first few bars, I wasn’t sure where this kind-eyed gentleman—Alex Aiono of Santa Monica, CA—was going with this. Then his mouth opened and sounds came out and wow I’m just happy to be alive.
“One Dance” has grown on me tremendously since I first heard it. I can now file it under “Bangers” and “Shit that will probably play on loop all summer.” If you’re already a fan of the song, it’s going to be easy to love this cover because Alex Aino is a much better singer than Drake. And then there’s that Spanish breakdown, in addition to his very nice face.
Judging by his rather legit website, Mr. Aiono has an equally legitimate career working with artists like John Legend and Babyface and he recently met Gladys Knight and it doesn’t get anymore serious than that.
Alex also has a whole host of other covers on his YouTube channel so good look getting stuff done for the rest of the day.