Set in a big, artfully lit studio, London Grammar’s Live Lounge session has a specific ambience to it. Hannah Reid’s haunting voice carries the first verse and chorus, before Dan Rothman comes in with the guitar and triggers the recognisable riff from The Weeknd’s chart topping hit. The London Grammar cover actually bears more resemblance to some of The Weeknd’s earlier work.

Alongside their cover, London Grammar performed their own newest single, ‘Baby It’s You’. This was released in August as the lead single on their upcoming album – the details of which, the band are keeping a secret for now. ‘Baby It’s You’ was favourably received by critics, but it was exceptionally well received by fans, who have been waiting in anticipation of London Grammar’s next move since 2017’s Truth Is A Beautiful Thing.

Fan support extended to their Live Lounge session, as proved by the comments section of the two Youtube videos. One fan enthusiastically declared that “everything they touch turns to gold. Outrageously talented band.” In an Instagram post, Radio 1 called their cover “spine tingling.”

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Spine tingling performance from @londongrammar today in the #LiveLounge They performed ‘Baby It’s You’ and a beautiful cover of @theweeknd’s ‘Blinding Lights’ Listen again on @bbcsounds or watch it @bbciplayer

A post shared by BBC Radio 1 (@bbcradio1) on Sep 22, 2020 at 12:44pm PDT

Blinding Lights is the hit from The Weeknd’s latest album, After Hours. Just yesterday, it broke the record for the most weeks spent in the Top Five of the Billboard Hot 100. Spending 28 weeks there, it passes previous record holder, Ed Sheeran’s ‘Shape Of You’. Elsewhere, The Weeknd has been busy in collaboration with Calvin Harris on their new single ‘Over Now’. The single is a unique combination of the two artists’ talents, but fans have noted influences ranging from Michael Jackson to Daft Punk.

London Grammar’s Live Lounge session is part of Radio 1’s Live Lounge Month throughout September. The return of Live Lounge Month was announced a few weeks ago. It takes place on Clara Amfo’s show, with new sets every Tuesday and Thursday, and classic favourite sessions on Monday and Wednesday – including Harry Styles, Demi Lovato and Usher. The lineup of new artists for Live Lounge Month is below.

At the time of announcement, Clara Amfo said, “I am absolutely delighted that Live Lounge Month is returning in September! Live music is an infinite source of joy and something that I know we have all missed terribly over the past few months. From rapidly emerging artists, to our established faves, I can’t wait to hear what all our Live Lounge artists have lined up for us!”

Live Lounge Month Line-up (in alphabetical order!)

Anne-Marie
Arlo Parks
Biffy Clyro
Declan McKenna
Jorja Smith
Little Mix
London Grammar
Miley Cyrus
YUNGLBUD

Playing two of her originals and two surprise covers, the artist’s signature warm and husky vocals were supported by an interesting musical arrangement for Cyrus. Each social distancing and wearing masks, the band consisted of a pianist, a cellist, a drummer, and two guitarists who also provided backing vocals.

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Honored to be the 1st performing for @bbcradio1 Live Lounge Month 2020! Link in stories to see more…. @billieeilish “my future”…..

A post shared by Miley Cyrus (@mileycyrus) on Sep 1, 2020 at 9:49am PDT

The songs of choice began with ‘Midnight Sky’, the most recent release from the singer and first single from her next album.  She commented, “There’s a lot of pressure when it comes to releasing the first song. I thought that lyrically and sonically this was a good reflection of where I’m going,” going on to reveal that the song was only written six weeks ago.

Following this was 2019 single ‘Slide Away’, which Cyrus belted out with beautifully emotive performance. She described the song as “a point of reference of the growth and of my journey over the past year and a half.”

Next came two covers, starting with The Eagles who were a huge influence to Miley Cyrus in the former years of her career. Originally steady and clean, ‘Take It To The Limit’, she stayed true to the heart of the song, tuning into the country feel.

Finally, a surprising cover from the artist, ‘My Future’ by Billie Eilish, only released at the end of July. Cyrus landed perfectly on the jazzier notes of the song, bringing her unique power to the vocals and a filled out instrumental. She explained how important self-acceptance is to her, especially as a woman, calling Eilish a “really healthy role model” for young girls. The reaction from fans was incredible, showing their support online and sending comments to the show. For those who missed it or simply want to listen again, the show is available now on Radio 1 Sounds, with three videos released on the Live Lounge YouTube channel.

As only the first live lounge performance of the month, it was an astounding success, with more to come. Artists including Yungblud, Little Mix, Biffy Clyro, Jorja Smith, Declan McKenna, Annie Maire, and Arlo Parks will appear on the show throughout September, so stay tuned for more.

Alex Kisch from Vevo says to the BBC “We see this as a tremendous first step in our collaboration as we look to expose Live Lounge’s phenomenal music catalogue and forthcoming performances to new audiences around the world.”

The Live Lounge is a segment on the British radio station BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 1Xtra. It exhibits a variety of well-known artists that perform different renditions of their own songs or cover different artists using their own unique style. This quickly became a popular innovative idea to the public as it conveyed many popular songs being performed by artists you wouldn’t expect.

The BBC’s popular radio show has features many of the industries biggest artists and bands such as Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith and Disclosure alongside new emerging talent. It reached it’s popularity by the iconic idea of getting artists from certain genres to cover songs that you would never expect them to cover such as Arctic Monkeys covering Drakes well known ‘Hold On We’re Going Home’.

You can already view most Live Lounge performances on Youtube on their official channel, this itself has accumulated 760 million views altogether and 2.7 million subscribers. So why make it view-able on Vevo as well you ask? Well not only will this make all performances visible to everyone internationally but also, BBC Radio 1 has an aim to make sure they attract a vast variety of audiences, the radio is something that is more popular with the older population and since so many younger people spend so much time on phones and tablets, making this content visible on Vevo should make it easier to gain access to these performances therefore attracting audiences of all ages.

Ben Cooper, the boss of BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra states in an interview with Newbeat that the agreement with Vevo is a huge deal for the network.

“Radio 1 and 1Xtra have to have a policy where here is a place you can find us, it’s on the radio. And that’s where we’ve been known for nearly 50 years on Radio 1. But if you also want to find our content in the areas that you love going to, whether that be a Facebook timeline, or whether that be on Twitter then you will bump into us. And you will find us. And if you do like spending lots of time on YouTube, then let’s make sure that we’ve got our content there and you can spend some time with us there. Likewise with Vevo.”

Furthermore, Radio 1 became the first radio station to reach one million subscribers on Youtube last October and as stated previously, this has grown to a massive 2.7 million. With the new collaboration with Vevo, the variety of talent shown on this station will become available to many more worldwide.