Sir Paul McCartney has given some high praise to a grade 10 student at a high school in Nova Scotia.
The former Beatle told the crowd during a recent tour stop in Kentucky that there’s an “incredible” version of his classic song, ‘Blackbird’ online.
“There’s an incredible version a Canadian girl’s done, you can see it on YouTube,” McCartney said during his concert. “It’s in her native language, it’s really cool check it out.”
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The version is courtesy of Emma Stevens, a 16-year-old, grade 10 student at Allison Bernard Memorial High School in Eskasoni Nova Scotia.
Stevens’ version is sung entirely in Mi’kmaq, a language spoken by fewer than 10,000 people.
The Indigenous rendition has been viewed over 515,000 times since McCartney’s admiration for the cover went viral.
UN-Habitat Youth, an organization that promotes youth-led developments, retweeted the social media story of McCartney giving the original shoutout to Stevens.
#EmmaStevens gets a shout out by @PaulMcCartney “There’s an incredible version done by a Canadian girl, see it on youtube, its in her native language.” See her play at the opening of the @unhabitat @UN #UNHabitatAssembly – https://t.co/CqMSgF1VuE #paulmccartney #blackbird pic.twitter.com/WsuQaaczp3
— UN-Habitat Youth (@unhabitatyouth) June 2, 2019
The Mi’kmaq version, which was produced by ABM High School, is embedded below.
The original version of “Blackbird” first appeared on the 1968 double album, “The Beatles.”