Watch St Vincent and David Byrne cover Stevie Wonder’s ‘Chemical Love’

13 May, 2023

David Byrne and St. Vincent perform onstage at the BAM Gala 2023

St Vincent and David Byrne have performed a cover of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Chemical Love’ together live – watch the moment below.

The pair, who have collaborated together frequently in the past, performed the rendition of Wonder’s song at the Brooklyn Academy of Music earlier this week (May 10). The event was held to honour Byrne, filmmaker Spike Lee and real estate lawyer, Claire Wood.

St Vincent, aka Annie Clark, performed a short set of songs at the event including ‘New York’, ‘Los Ageless’ and ‘Dancing With A Ghost’ from her 2018 album ‘Masseduction‘ before joining forces on stage with Byrne to cover ‘Chemical Love’ from the Jungle Fever soundtrack – a film directed by Lee.

Speaking about their decision to cover the song, Byrne said: “We kind of wanted to tie Spike into this somehow, so this is a song from Jungle Fever, specifically ‘Chemical Love’ by Stevie Wonder,” he explained.

“It takes a little bit of nerve for us to do it,” Byrne added. You can see footage of the moment here:

Gina Duncan, president for the Brooklyn Academy of Music, said Byrne, Lee and Wood had “built community around their work.”

Duncan went on to commended Byrne for “always exploring, always trying new things, and also really thinking about how to use his work, his curiosity, and his platform to build communities that think about how we can solve some of the problems that are really plaguing the world” (via Daily News).

St Vincent and Byrne released an album of songs together called ‘Love This Giant’ back in 2012.

Reviewing the record, NME wrote at the time: “Byrne’s imprint may be the strongest – he revisits and updates the theme of ‘Television Man’ on the title track, for instance – but Clark’s idiosyncrasies are particularly evident on ‘Ice Age’, a reflective and delicate song that morphs into something experimental and complex, and wouldn’t have sounded out of place on last year’s terrific ‘Strange Mercy’; and ‘Weekend In The Dust’, which brings to mind imperious-era Prince or even Parliament and Funkadelic.

“…The arrangements are exquisite from top to bottom, and producer Congleton – who worked with Clark on ‘Strange Mercy’ – helps make it easy for us all to love this giant of a record. It takes a brass neck or two to make horns sound this vital.”

In other news, St. Vincent covered David Bowie‘s ‘Young Americans’ during a live performance back in March. 

The musician singer took to the stage at the ‘Love Rocks’ charity gig in New York and as part of her set in front of a packed Beacon Theatre crowd, Vincent covered the classic Bowie track from the 1975 album of the same name.

Byrne, meanwhile, performed at the Oscars 2023 with the infamous hot dog fingers from the year’s most-nominated film, Everything Everywhere All At Once.

The post Watch St Vincent and David Byrne cover Stevie Wonder’s ‘Chemical Love’ appeared first on NME.