By Michael Kolawole

Danaking’s renditions of Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love” and Enrique Iglesias’ “Hero” are static but impressive.

Caught off guard by TJ Mark, Danaking inadvertently performs a song in front of a store in the busy street of Buchanan. With his phone connected to a part of the microphone stand, Danaking performs Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love”.

Singing calmly, he serenades passersby with his dulcet voice. “Wise men say, only fools rush in / but I can’t help falling in love with you,” Danaking croons with his hands deeply inserted in his trousers pockets.

As he glances at his phone to read the lyrics, the video slightly jumps to the chorus. Like a river flows,” he sings in the chorus, “Surely to the sea / Darling, so it goes / Some things, you know, are meant to be.” He continues singing, asking his lover to not only take his hands but his whole heart, because he can’t help falling in love with her.

Though intriguing, Danaking’s stationary position during the rendition of “Can’t Help Falling in Love” makes the performance drab. Even when he tries to elevate it with his vocal phrasing, the piece still doesn’t pick up as expected.

The busking performance unfolds with a quiet modesty, and its spontaneity becomes its charms and limitations. What should feel like a shared public moment between the singer and the street instead settles into something closer to a private rehearsal performed outdoors.

Danaking’s voice carries the warmth and the sincerity of the song he is rendering, but his body remains still, and the street, normally a collaborator in such a show, is strangely absent from the performance. Perfunctory gestures and the reluctance to engage with the surrounding street life keep the performance from blooming into the lively spectacle that busking often demands.

Danaking is fascinated by songs written deeply from the soul. “Sometimes I wish we could all go back to when songs were written from the heart,” Danaking wrote in the caption for his rendition video of Enrique Iglesias’ classic song, “Hero”.

Sitting on a sofa in a living room, with a microphone stand in front of him, he renders a version of the hypothetical and reassuring questions of love asked in the song’s opening verse. With the camera focusing solely on Danaking, he asks if his lover would dance if he asks her to dance. Or if she would run and never look back. Would she cry if she saw him crying and would she save his soul tonight?

Like the original song’s character, Danaking doesn’t just want the assurance of love from his partner; he is also willing to commit himself and promises to be her hero and kiss away her pain.

Danaking’s interpretation of “Hero” isn’t as static as that of his “Can’t Help Falling in Love”. He gesticulates as he sings, subtly interpreting the lyrics. His vocal phrasing, however, slightly tilted towards Afrobeats. The slight Afrobeats inflection gives the song a new, distinct outlook, but shifts its emotional integrity.

Like the restrained outdoors performance of “Can’t Help Falling in Love”, the living room setting and fixed camera create visual monotony. It contained the emotional crescendo that the song demands, leaving the rendition hovering between heartfelt homage and restrained rehearsal.

However, the performance benefits from Danaking’s attentiveness to expression. Understanding that a little interpretation might be needed for clarity, he uses his eyes and measured hand gestures to translate the song’s devotion into visible feelings.

Danaking’s calm delivery of the songs preserves their tenderness. Despite their restrained presentations, the sincerity in his tone keeps the songs from falling into a mere imitation. Nonetheless, the unplugged performances reveal that Danaking has a voice capable of expressing heartfelt emotions even when caught unaware and the stage offers little or no assistance.