“Hurt” – a Johnny Cash classic ruined by a reality TV superstar? Not quite…
The X Factor caused a surge of uproar again at its grand Wembley Arena final when previous winner Leona Lewis stepped out on stage to perform her newly released cover of Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt”, originally released in 1994 on the American hard rock band’s The Downward Spiral album.
Having been quite impressed with her 2008 cover of Snow Patrol’s “Run”, yet again I was pleasantly surprised to see her sticking to the style of the original (see below). The haunting piano, subtle yet harrowing vocals and lack of stage theatrics made for what I thought was a beautiful and admirable cover.
Unfortunately for Leona, she’d already been beaten to it. 2002 saw American singing legend Johnny Cash covering the song on his album American IV: The Man Comes Around. Cash died in September 2003, just 7 months after filming the video for the song. The cover has since been hailed as his final classic, and a highly successful version.
This meant that as soon as Leona stepped on stage and began her own cover, the social networks went mad. I flicked onto Facebook and the first status I saw read “Leona Lewis thinks she’s allowed to sing Johnny Cash? No. Pathetic” and Twitter was much the same. Not only did no-one seem to acknowledge that it’s actually a NIN song, but the mood almost seemed to suggest that people viewed it as offensive for Leona to be covering the track.
All of this seems incredibly unfair on an undeniably talented singer who has proved on more than one occasion that she’s more than capable of producing a beautiful and well thought out cover. If anything hers is truer to the original, with Cash choosing to swap the piano for acoustic guitar.
I’ll be the first to admit that Cash’s is the most emotional of the three versions, but I can’t help but feel that this is because when sung by him “Hurt” is about the man, not the music. Perhaps this is why it’s seen as a successful cover, as it does more than merely copy Trent Reznor’s NIN original.
But I can’t help but think that if a singer other than Leona Lewis, the nation’s darling Ellie Goulding, or perhaps someone like Florence Welch, had covered the song, the reaction would be different. And not because they’re better singers, because as much as I love Ellie Goulding and I can’t claim to be a particular fan of Leona, Leona has the better voice of the two of them. I think the reason behind the criticism, as well as there being no comparison between a singer like Leona and a legend like Johnny Cash, is the fact one of them is an X Factor winner.
The stigma attached to talent contest winners and their credibility means that no matter how much success someone like Leona Lewis achieves (she’s now releasing her third studio album) she will always be viewed by some as poor quality because of the way in which she was discovered. Whilst acts like Girls Aloud and Will Young have to a degree ditched the talent show label, I think there will always be a certain aversion to this type of artist from a certain type of music fan – the music snob.
I’ll admit that I myself will turn my nose up at the likes of various talent-lacking pop acts (no names mentioned, I’m too nice for that) but if someone has a good voice and charisma, sings songs that appeal and is musically capable, they’ll impress me. Leona may not write her own songs and I may not own any of her records or claim to call myself a fan. But for me, half-forced into watching the farce that was the X Factor final (perhaps one of the cons of returning to the family home for the Xmas holidays), Leona Lewis’s performance of “Hurt” stood out as the undisputed highlight.
Subtle, haunting and quietly beautiful, Leona’s cover did the exact opposite of ruining that song. I will hold my hands up proudly and say that despite any previous, different, perhaps better covers, she invigorated it, brought it to the attention of a whole new generation and unfortunately put herself up for mass criticism as a result. I’ve always been an admirer of bravery, and doing what she did took guts. Hats off to her.