Boyce Avenue Covers One Direction's What Makes You Beautiful

Boyce Avenue's latest cover, a softer, "Boyced" version of One Direction's What Makes you Beautiful, was released on iTunes on October 15th, and the video was uploaded to YouTube on October 16th.

I had never heard of One Direction until I saw Boyce fans on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter requesting a Boyce Avenue cover of What Makes You Beautiful. So, I decided to look them up. :)

One Direction are a British-Irish boy band, consisting of members Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson. They finished third on the seventh series of The X Factor. All five of the band's members applied as solo candidates to the competition, but failed to qualify for the "Boys" category. At the suggestion of guest judge Nicole Scherzinger, the five teens were put into a band, thus qualifying for the "Groups" category. After the elimination of the other three groups within four weeks, they became Simon Cowell's last act in the competition, and finished third behind runner-up Rebecca Ferguson and winner Matt Cardle.

Aside from the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync, I'm not generally a fan of boy bands, and One Direction is no exception. When I heard Boyce Avenue was going to be covering their song, I went and found their video for What Makes You Beautiful on YouTube.




Not gonna lie....they're just a little too....well, boy bandish for my tastes.  Some of the lyrics, in my opinion, are uber cheesy. ("So girl, c'mon...you got it wrong...to prove I'm right I put it in a song..."or "The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed....")

If this song came on the radio, chances are very good my reaction would be, "GAH!! Sorry, boys...." and a quick change of the station.

Enter Boyce Avenue.

Because I'm a Boyce Avenue junkie, and I know what Alejandro is capable of, I'll give any song that they cover a chance.

I still think the lyrics are pretty cheesy.  But there's one line in the chorus that, when I hear Alejandro sing it, somehow becomes romantic and charming:

"You don't know you're beautiful....that's what makes you beautiful."

Suddenly, the message of the song shines through: humility is beautiful. And, just like that, over the last few days, the Boyced version of "What Makes You Beautiful" has started to grow on me, cheesy lyrics and all.

So, once again, Boyce Avenue has taken a song I would not normally care for at all, and made me like it. A lot. It just strengthens for me the theory that a lot of the mainstream music out there has potential....it's just the wrong artist singing it, or the wrong arrangement, or it just needs a few simple changes to take it from good to great. Boyce Avenue demonstrates this again and again with their take of so many songs. It's one of the things I love about them.




But wait, there's more!!

Today, I was in my happy place (listening to Boyce Avenue on headphones) and I heard an oh-so-subtle "thump" in the chorus, right when Alejandro sings, "That's what makes you beautiful." It reminded me of the "thump" in Dare To Believe, but since there's no piano in What Makes You Beautiful, I was very curious to know what it was. So, I asked him about it.

Me: Soooo....I swear I can hear a subtle percussive "thump" in What Makes You Beautiful...every time you sing, "...That's what makes you beautiful..." in the chorus. What is it? It sounds very much like the "thump" I love so much in Dare To Believe, but it's more subtle. I'm not imagining it, am I??

Alejandro: slapping the electric strings. you can see it in one of the shots in the video ;)

Sure enough, at the :54 mark, you can see exactly what he's talking about:

Anyone who knows me, knows that I love these little details....instrumental subtleties that Alejandro puts into the songs. The timing of this little "thump" really resonated with me, because with that subtle little sound, "You don't know you're beautiful....that's what makes you beautiful," becomes, "You don't know....you don't know you're beautiful....that's what makes you beautiful." Maybe it's just my interpretation of the arrangement, but I can't help but wonder if Alejandro included it to drive the point of the song home. Intentional or not, it's perfectly timed, and to be honest, it's what makes me love the song. ♥

Boyce Avenue's version of What Makes You Beautiful is available on the New Acoustic Sessions, Volume 2 Album on iTunes. Click here to preview/buy the album.