Leo Moracchioli is a musician from Norway. Over the last few years, he has become widely known for putting his own spin on popular songs. His most popular heavy metal cover is probably Adele’s song “Hello.” Leo usually performs all the instruments himself in his YouTube videos.
He plays drums, guitar, bass, and does vocals. He occasionally throws a few different instruments in his videos. For example, Leo has used a voice box for covers of “Mamma Mia” by ABBA and “Chandelier” by Sia. He has also played the trumpet for his cover of the Ghostbusters theme song. Leo has played the violin for his cover of “Dancing Queen” by ABBA. And he has played the banjo when he covered Pink’s song “Try.”
Some of Leo’s covers
Leo’s metal covers of songs from Taylor Swift, among others, much more bearable for folks like me to listen to.
The cover that seems to have put Leo on the map is his cover of “Hello” from Adele. Adele’s version is rather slow, and also rather dull and boring for me. Leo’s cover of the song makes it livelier and is quite a head-banger. His buddy Pete Cottrell did the guitar solo in the YouTube video. Cottrell also did the guitar solo in Leo’s metal cover of “Just Give Me A Reason” from Pink.
A more light-hearted and humorous YouTube video is of Leo’s metal cover of “Hakuna Matata” from The Lion King. It was quite a delight to see Leo screaming Timon and Pumbaa’s talking bit in the song. “Oh, the shame. He was ashamed. Thought of changing my name. Oh, what’s in a name? And I got down-hearted. How did it feel?”
Another amusing piece is Leo’s rendition of the children’s song “The Wheels on the Bus.” Playing children’s songs with a screaming musician should be good for the kids. It will also be good for the parents aiming to instill a healthy fear and respect into their kids.
A cover of a song Leo made much more bearable was Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball.” Leo’s guitar and drum work, as well as singing and screaming, was music to my ears. Miley’s machine making noise in the background is not.
Final examples
There have been a few covers that did not quite tickle my fancy. One was his rendition of Britney Spears’ “Oops, I Did It Again.” It was not bad per se. It just was not something I would jump out of my chair in excitement about. Another example is his rendition of Ricky Martin’s “Livin La Vida Loca.” I confess that I know every word to that song by heart. I have sung that song on karaoke a few times, but Leo’s rendition just did not feel like a true masterpiece.
There are a couple more soothing acoustic covers Leo does that put me at ease. One is his cover of “Hurt” by Nine Inch Nails. Johnny Cash is more widely associated with the song. However, Nine Inch Nails claim the origins of the song. In Leo’s rendition, he puts a more serious tone into this song compared to his more lively renditions.
Another well-done acoustic cover was his cover of Louis Armstrong’s “What A Wonderful World.” I have been told I do a good impersonation of Armstrong’s voice. However, Leo did not need to do any impersonations to do a good job. Towards the end of the video, it was showing the globe of planet Earth with the words “Stop The Hate.”
If only Leo Moracchioli could get a band together and come to Fargo. He would make a wonderful Welcome Week performer at North Dakota State.