A singing granddad has been given the seal of approval by Taylor Swift’s longtime collaborator after he covered one of their songs.
Edwin the singing granddad is known for singing famous songs, but went viral recently when he decided to publish his version of Swift’s track “August.” He went viral on TikTok and Instagram with almost 5 million views of him singing the song from Swift’s 2020 album, Folklore. It was cowritten by her friend and collaborator, Jack Antonoff, who revealed he loved Edwin’s version.
“I love this. I just played this 10 times,” Antonoff replied to Edwin’s video. Newsweek contacted Edwin by email for comment.
The singing grandpa had captioned his Instagram post: “I watched ‘Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour’ last week and really enjoyed it. What an incredible show! Here’s my cover of August. I hope you like it!”
Left: Taylor Swift performs onstage during The Eras Tour on July 27, 2024 in Munich, Germany. Right: Edwin the singing granddad. He has gone viral for covering one of Swift’s songs.
Thomas Niedermueller/Getty Images, Instagram/@grandadsings_tiktok
People did in fact like it, and let Edwin know in the replies. “This song really takes a different perspective sung from a much older and wiser human. Swifties don’t come at me I love her too! The feeling behind it is ever more nostalgic,” wrote @yearofthedesert.
“Forget Taylor’s version…I love grandads version,” added @candacemandace, and @sophie_heald07 commented: “This is so good you’re so talented!!!”
Edwin has covered a range of artists from Coldplay to Abba and even Lana Del Rey. His “August” cover was not the first time he chose to sing a Swift song and has also sung “The Archer” and “Enchanted.”
“August” was a critically acclaimed song for Swift and debuted at 23 in the Billboard Top 100 charts.
Edwin, who hails from the coastal town of Bournemouth in southern England, began singing as a choirboy but then took a break from it for many years. He decided to get back into singing after losing his wife, Margaret, who had encouraged him to return to it.
To honor her memory, he found a studio in Bournemouth, and after recording some songs, the crew had an idea of how he could find a broader audience.
“Then they said to me ‘go on TikTok’, and I thought, ‘what’s TikTok?” Edwin said on the morning breakfast show, Lorraine, on British broadcast network ITV in June.
Antonoff was not the only famous person to react to Edwin’s covers; even Scottish star Lewis Capaldi reached out to him to say he loved his music.
“It is absolutely marvelous, and the wonderful comments people make… I’m thrilled to pieces, I’m so lucky at my age,” Edwin said.
