No, this isn’t the David Bowie version.
I love Bowie’s original as much as anyone. It builds into one of rock music’s great emotional declarations. But Australian singer Vera Blue found an entirely different way into the song.
Her 2020 version is simple, intimate and ethereal. Where Bowie sounds as though he is trying to make himself heard across the Berlin Wall, Vera Blue sounds as though she is singing directly to one person. Her delicate voice makes the promise feel less triumphant but perhaps even more vulnerable.
Once I heard it, I could not unhear it. Now, whenever I hear Bowie’s original, I want to hear Vera Blue’s interpretation afterward. The two recordings seem to complete each other.
It is magical.