Taylor Swift swept up in Australia’s Riptide

October 10, 2014 11:24 pm 0 comments Views: 2

Vance Joy’s Riptide quickly won Aussie hearts — now it could go global, after winning over Taylor Swift.
Source: News Corp Australia

Sometimes a song just won’t go away.

When Gotye released Somebody That I Used To Know in 2011, it seemed to hang around for a very long time.

It started in Australia and travelled globally until artists such as Rita Ora and Kelly Clarkson covered it and they performed it in the TV show Glee.

Now another Aussie song is taking on a life of its own.

Vance Joy’s Riptide, which made it to No.1 on the triple J’s hottest 100, is capturing hearts overseas.

Superstar Taylor Swift is the latest person to give it her seal of approval with her own version of it for BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge show.

“This is just one of my favourite songs that has come out all year and for me it was a no brainer,” Swift said about her choice of cover song.

“And I wanted to change up the arrangement a little bit and see maybe what it would sound like if a girl sang it.”

The singer then launched into her own version of the Melbourne singer’s track.

Taylor Swift’s version of Riptide

While Joy is famous for his ukulele playing on the song, Swift made it a more melancholy affair in her stripped back version.

The radio show’s presenter, Fearne Cotton, told the singer it would mean a lot to Joy to hear her cover.

“Vance Joy is going to be over the moon that you’ve covered his song,” Cotton said.

It’s not the first time the song has been covered.

Recently, a group of 168 students in Ireland performed their version of the song “as gaeilge” or in Irish.

Riptide performed ‘As Gaeilge’

Students playing harps, fiddles, a full band and a chorus of singers joined together on stage, along with some Irish dancers, to perform the hit with some Irish flavour on and Irish TV show. When asked if he was worried the song could overshadow his career, Joy answered: “Yeah, sometimes.”

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“I think I guess my game plan is just to keep writing songs I’m happy with and kind of embed it (Riptide) in a big series of songs,” he told AAP.

However, there is hope for the artist that the other songs on his recently released album, Dream Your Life Away, are being well received.

Just this week, the singer gained an influential fan in Game of Thrones actor Sophie Turner, who plays Sansa Stark on the popular TV show.