Baba Yetu is a song that is covered by different artists over the past few years. I first heard of it at the YouTube channel of Peter Hollens through his cover of this song together with Malukah seven years ago. Baba Yetu stands for ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ in the Swahili language. And this song sounds so optimistic! Singing a prayer instead of just saying it out loud, feels more positive, convinced, just a happy feeling accompanied by music.
The original song that is covered by other artists, is written by Christopher Tin. And it is also one of the songs appearing in the pc game ‘Sid Meier’s Civilization IV’, better known as ‘Civilization IV’ or ‘CIV IV’. It was released in 2005 and has since then won a Grammy Award for Best Arrangement, Instrument and Vocals in 2011 and it has won an Independent Music Award for Best Song – Used in Film, TV, Gaming or Multimedia of 2011. And last but not least it has also won in another category of the Independent Music Award for Best Song – World Beat of 2011.
It is the first video game piece that has ever won a Grammy Award.
So there is the original song, written by the composer and the video accompanied with footage from the video game Civilization IV. Performed by the Grammy-winning Soweto Gospel Choir with the Royal Philarmonic Orchestra.
Views: 22.493.955+ (22M+)
Channel: Christopher Tin
Subscribers: 77.6K
Date: 29 October 2009
Likes: 167K
Then there is the ‘Baba Yetu’ cover by Peter Hollens and Malukah. No choir but two people who sing (in) different vocals of the song and combine all the footage in one video. Also a lovely way of video recording and bringing all voices together.
Views: 7.510.920+ (7,5M+)
Channel: Peter Hollens
Subscribers: 2.68M
Date: 19 August 2014
Likes: 98K
And last but not least the ‘Baba Yetu’ cover of Alex Boyé and the BYU Men’s Chorus and Philarmonic.
Views: 19.061.852+ (19M+)
Channel: Alex Boye
Subscribers: 772K
Date: 23 March 2016
Likes: 225K
This was still not the last video, at the same date the BYU Men’s Choir has also released it’s ‘Baba Yetu’ cover recorded in East Africa with the help of Marifiki Africa. Totally different than the previous video with artist Alex Boyé, but also lovely with the different footage. I like both styles, both covers.
Views: 2.767.014+ (2,7M+)
Channel: Alex Boye
Subscribers: 772K
Date: 23 March 2016
Likes: 33K
To summarize: I like all covers of ‘Baba Yetu’ I have seen and listened to so far.
Do you know another ‘Baba Yetu’ cover?
Enjoy watching these videos!
Loves from Sophie