The chances are that if you are based in the UK you’ve already heard Hannah Grace’s reinterpretation of Fatboy Slim’s Praise You, which in turn was derived from a sample of Take Yo’ Praise by Camille Yarborough. That’s because the song has already been featured on a TV advert for a bank and has also played out on BBC coverage of the 2017 London 2017 World Athletic Championships. Regular readers of Breaking More Waves also might be aware of Hannah’s music before that though as in 2016 I posted her gutsy, gritty punch of a song Mustang taken from her EP of the same name.
This version of Praise You is radically different from both the Brighton Big Beat DJ’s dancefloor filler, but maybe the cover isn’t as surprising as you’d expect – after all Hannah’s exceptional vocal is rooted in gospel and soul and she has also worked with Breaking More Waves regular Gabrielle Aplin, who also benefitted from gaining a wider audience with a piano cover version that became a TV advert (her version of the Power of Love).
However, despite the TV advert, the connections to Aplin etc, what really matters is the quality of the music and this version of Praise You is flawless; the vocals, the arrangement, the mood. Everything is just perfect. So, whilst in my country this cover may not be new to you, this is the world wide web and hopefully this post will bring Hannah’s take on the song to the attention to at least a few more people.
Hannah Grace - Praise You
