Four decades after Dolly Parton rejected Elvis Presley the rights to “I Will Always Love You,” a 13-year-old Austrian girl took the melody and made it her own.
Laura Kamhuber masterfully delivered the “forbidden” song, which Whitney Houston introduced to a new generation in 1992, at The Voice Kids’ blind auditions.
And she rendered the judges temporarily dumbfounded.
Continue reading to hear more about the young girl’s audition, which has 226 million views on YouTube!
Elvis Presley put a play on Dolly Parton’s popular song “I Will Always Love You,” which was published the same year.
If Parton agreed to the requirements, she would have to give up half of the publishing earnings from the country song she wrote after breaking her professional relationship with long-time partner Porter Wagoner.
Even though Presley was her hero, she could not bring herself to sign.
“Something in my heart says, ‘Don’t do that.’ And I just didn’t do it,” she said in an interview with CMT. “But I always wondered what it would sound like. I know he’d ᴋɪʟʟ it…He would have ᴋɪʟʟᴇᴅ it. But anyway, so he didn’t. Then when Whitney [Houston’s version] came out, I made enough money to buy Graceland.”
Topping the charts in 1992
Whitney Houston recorded a pop ballad of the same song for the 1992 film The Bodyguard, in which she co-starred with Kevin Costner. The song was a global hit, and with over 20 million copies sold, it became the best-selling single ever by a female singer.
From to now, Celine Dion is the only female woman to have a top-10 hit, with 18 million copies sold of “My Heart Will Go On.”
And in 2012, when pop queen died, the “Jolene” singer joined the chorus of mourning artists, stating in a statement, “I will always be grateful and in awe of the wonderful performance she did on my song and I can truly say from the bottom of my heart, ‘Whitney, I will always love you. You will be missed.’”
‘Forbidden song’
The next year, 13-year-old Laura Kamhuber took the stage for a blind audition on The Voice Kids, and after flawlessly belting out “I Will Always Love You,” she astounded the judges.
The young Austrian, who competed in the German edition of the popular singing competition, received acclaim from all three judges, who turned their chairs to coach the middle schooler.
After her spine-tingling performance, German pop singer Tim Bendzko informed Kamhuber that she had just performed “the forbidden song.” Referring to Houston’s difficult to match vocal range, he remarked, “You’re not actually allowed to sing this song because it’s unsingable.”
Bendzko adds, “You just sang it sensationally. It was incredible.”
Though Kamhuber, now 24, was ousted in the show’s knockout rounds, her memorable audition has received 226 million views and is the most watched YouTube video by an Austrian musician.
Since then, the woman, who goes by the stage name Laura Lun, has released three albums, the most recent in 2017, featuring pop, country, and ballads.
Take a listen to Laura Kamhuber’s audition and let us know your thoughts!
