Armed with a good ear, a good voice and self-marketing tips that he picked up at school, singer Inhyeok Yeo is aiming for a Grammy. What sets him apart from Adele, Taylor Swift and Bruno Mars, though, is that he sings a cappella cover versions of pop songs — performing all the instruments with his own voice.
And he's getting noticed — online at least. The 26-year-old Seoul native, who works at an IT firm in Tokyo during the day, has uploaded six a cappella recordings onto his YouTube channel since January. Together they have attracted more than a million views and thousands of congratulatory comments. Yeo released a seventh track today, a rendition of Alicia Key's "Fallin'," via iTunes.
"SNS is really powerful," he tells The Japan Times. "Initially I was going to quit a cappella after uploading three songs. But my first clip (a cover of Michael Jackson's 'Thriller') became such a phenomenon I had no choice but to continue."