REVIEW- Chandelier (Cover by Jasmine Thompson)

Possibly Jasmine's best vocals on any of her songs.

Jasmine released her cover of Sia's Chandelier on August 10, 2014. The video has garnered 8.2 million views since its release and over 110,000 likes. It is a stunningly beautiful cover, and one of my favorite songs by Jasmine.

The song's lyrics are tragic and bittersweet. They speak of a "party-girl" who drinks too much and leads a life of hedonistic excess. The girl "swings on the chandelier," flying like a bird through the night as tears dry on her face, "holding on for dear life." Sia sings these lyrics in a fast, rushed manner, and sings the chorus with tremendous passion.

In her rendition, Jasmine truly makes the song her own by radically changing the song from one sung in a hyper-kinetic, turbo-charged fashion into one sung in an ethereal, almost mystical way.

Instead of expressing adrenaline fueled despair and hedonism, Jasmine's rendition captures the fragile and vulnerable state of being of the "party girl," subject to bouts of shame and guilt upon waking up in the morning after a night of debauchery.

Jasmine's version pierces through the defenses of the party-girl and finds the inner beauty within her. She sings the song less from the perspective of the party-girl's debased lower self, but more from the perspective of her higher self, the part of herself that wants to escape her hellish lifestyle. Jasmine's angelic vocals are especially moving when seen from this perspective.

This is a song where Jasmine saw something in the spaces of the original song, something undeveloped. She took that sliver of hope and glimmer of tomorrow in the lyrics, and vigorously developed them into her creative rendition so fitting for her voice.

Beautifully done. I love especially how she sings the first chorus in an ethereal whisper in stark contrast to the loud defiant way Sia sings it. Possibly Jasmine's most beautiful vocals on any song to date, and one of her most creative interpretations of an original song.