I honestly didn’t know she could sing like this.
Zara Larsson did a cover of “Tennessee Whiskey” when she made a stop in Nashville recently, and it’s actually pretty good… if you’ve never heard her name before, but you’re on TikTok at all, you’ve probably heard songs like “Lush Life,” ‘Midnight Sun” or “Stateside,” which blew up after Alysa Liu won the gold medal in women’s singles, when she debuted her routine to the “Stateside” remix at the Olympic Exhibition Gala.
Zara is a multi-platinum Swedish pop singer who is becoming very popular here in the United States, and I didn’t even know she cared anything about country, and she really did a great job with it.
As we all know at this point, the song was originally recorded by the late David Allan Coe in 1981, but at the time, it was nothing more than a middling single for Coe and peaked at #77 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. Two years later, George Jones experienced quite a bit of success with the track, scoring a #2 hit in the fall of 1983. Given the success of Jones’ cover, “Tennessee Whiskey” became synonymous with the Possum.
From 1981 to 2015, “Tennessee Whiskey” was obviously a popular song in the genre thanks to Jones’ version, but it was still nowhere near a staple. Of course, that all changed on November 4, 2015, when Stapleton performed it alongside Justin Timberlake at the 49th Annual CMA Awards. Stapleton’s version flew up Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart just two weeks later, reaching #1 for two straight weeks from November 21st to December 4th despite not being sent to radio as a single.
So many country greats have performed it over the years, it’s one of the most-recognized country songs of all-time, and i think many fans think of it as Stapleton’s song because no one is touching that rendition in my humble opinion. It’s also the only country song in history, and on the third song ever, to sell over 20 million units and obtain double-diamond status from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
So yeah… it’s iconic, simply put. T-Pain has also done a great cover of “Tennessee Whiskey,” so maybe some, or very few these days, pop singers deserve a little more credit. If they sang like this on more of their songs, I’d probably enjoy modern pop a lot more, but I digress…
I probably would’ve rolled my eyes at the thought of Zara singing this, because I didn’t know she could sign like this just based on the few songs I’ve heard on TikTok, which are catchy, don’t get me wrong, but consider me impressed:
@kqmarler zara larsson in Nashville #zaralarsson #nashville #midnightsun ♬ original sound – kath
Fans in the comments seemed to agree with how good it is:
“My waist is literally shrinking omg I’m levitating.”
“I DIDNT KNOW THIS WAS AN OPTION.”
“My two personalities meeting each other.”
“Oh she can SANG.”
“I have to put more effort into talking than she does singing.”
“She can literally sing anything and I’m sat.”
“Everyone yearns for good country music and you can’t tell me otherwise.”
“Her voice is so beautiful this girl is TALENTED.”
“Zara can do all genres.”
“This song is hella hard to cover and she really made it sooo good and so her.”
But this is what we really need to hear:
“Now only if Chris Stapleton would sing lush life.”
I mean, I’m here for it… we all know he could totally nail it and probably somehow make it into a beautiful country ballad.
“Tennessee Whiskey”
