Dan Vasc has done it again with this iconic cover of Amazing Grace.
Amazing Grace has lived a long time in public memory. It entered the folk canon through services and street singing, then returned to the charts when Judy Collins recorded a folk and gospel reading in the 1970s. The Library of Congress later placed that recording in the National Recording Registry in 2017.
Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence” received the same honor in 2013, which tells you how national memory treats quiet songs that stick.
A fan once said that the best rock covers feel like the original melody decided to wear armor. That is a neat way to put it. The words remain gentle, while the sound gets some grit.
The voice that turns a hymn into a rock hit
Vasc sings with that full-bodied, carefully managed rock sound that sits between baritone warmth and tenor shine. He does not rush. He lets consonants land.
Then, when the chorus arrives, he leans into grit and brings in the growl. You can hear the theater of it without losing the prayer at the center.
The numbers show the pull. Vasc’s Amazing Grace has over 18 million views on YouTube now
How Dan Vasc found his lane
Daniel Vasconcelos, born in Brazil in 1989, left the army, majored in business, and then walked away when the pull of music became too much. So, he turned around in 2007 and built skills the slow way.
He studied contemporary singing and classical technique. He took theory, composition, and piano. He taught others to sing, which meant he listened for breath, for vowels, for placement. Teaching refines craft. Teaching also pays rent while you wait for your big break.
He joined the metal band Fearless and helped release an EP called Ancient Wisdom in 2013. The attention from that record led producer Juan Aneiros to invite him onto “The Omens of Death,” the second concept album featuring the late Christopher Lee. Vasc voiced a character named Oliver, a small role that taught big studio habits.
Then came a wall. Vasc and Fearless recorded a full album and could not spark a label deal. Grief hit. His father passed from cancer. In October 2017, he tried another route and began to build an audience on YouTube. Two years later the crowd felt strong enough that he released Fearless’s Chronicles of Ancient Wisdom on his own.
From viral clips to a public singalong
You probably met him through a different door. One of Vasc’s most watched clip is Toss A Coin To Your Witcher, the bard song from the Netflix series. It went viral, spawned dozens of fan remixes, and passed 30 million views. That track told the metal audience what his pipes could do against a full bore arrangement. He can rock. No doubt there.
The channel grew by repetition and variety. There are now many videos past the million mark. Some of those sit beyond two million. He even wrote a tongue-in-cheek metal theme for the weekly stream, Friday Night Tights. Three days after release, it hit the top slot on Amazon’s All Styles charts in the United States and the United Kingdom. That is a nimble leap from cover singer to culture maker.
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