Elvis fans think he was reincarnated as this guy

His official YouTube channel matters 74.2 million official views and half a million subscribers. The oldest video, published five years ago, is a cover of “Love me”, a song that Elvis Presley led to the charts in 1956. The voice sounds just like Elvis, but fresher, less dusty. No, it has nothing to do with artificial intelligence. Not this time. The singer is a 22-year-old boy, Elliot James Reay: “All credits go to Elvis for creating an incredible song,” he wrote in the caption accompanying the clip.

The comments are full of thoughts from fans of the king of rock’n’roll, .nostalgic people who thank the talented singer from Bury, near Manchester, for having paid homage to their legend. “Elliot, you make my day bright and perfect with your golden voice, like my idol, Elvis Presley, before he died,” one user commented. “I loved this Elvis song and now I can’t tell the difference between you,” another wrote. There are even those who are convinced that Elvis has been reincarnated in Reay: “Elliot, you are the young Elvis, but you are a natural talent and your voice is out of today’s world. It’s like life after fifty years brings so much talent back here. It’s a pleasure to listen to you”. Indeed, Elliot James Reay seems to have fallen into 2024 directly from 1954, like “Back to the Future”. Do peers compulsively stream Drake and Travis Scott hits? He has other idols: “I grew up listening to all types of music, but found myself drawn to older music, especially the 50s and 60s. I love Roy Orbison and Elvis, I am inspired by Eddie Cochran and Billy Fury”.

On YouTube his cover of “Can’t help falling in love” matters 5.4 million views. But it’s thanks to TikTok that Elliot James Reay’s popularity has exploded among Generation Z kids. His official account matters 61.5 million “likes” and 3.4 million followers. The videos in which he reinterprets the classics of Elvis and the other great fathers of rock’n’roll of the 1950s while carrying out daily activities such as making coffee, cleaning the house or combing his hair have gone viral: no ballet, just the magic and power of a voice in one way or another fascinating. In addition to the various “Unchained melody”, “Put your head on my shoulder”, “Always on my mind” and “Devil in disguise”, Elliot James Reay also ventured into reinterpretations of contemporary classics such as “Thinking out loud” by Ed Sheeran, exceeding 20 million views.

Now he has finally decided to release an original single. Original in the sense that it is not a cover by another artist, but a piece written by him together with – among others – Glen Roberts, already alongside Aurora and Olivia Dean. Why “I think they call this love” seems to come out of a 1950s hitparade.

Even before its release, the song had totaled 10 million views on TikTok, thanks to some previews: a classic even before it became one. The song is characterized by timeless romanticism, ultra-traditional writing and vocal harmonies that equally reflect the style of the 1950s. “Growing up on the songs of Elvis, Roy Orbison and Billy Fury really shaped my love of music. I have been fortunate to share this passion over the past few years on social media with over 3 million amazing fans. .I write this music despite all the people who said I couldn’t or shouldn’t do it, and it’s really nice that people seem to like it. After a year in the studio finding my voice and sound, I’m excited to finally release my debut single. This song means a lot to me. I wrote it about a very universal experience, realizing you were in love.”

A year ago he decided to pack up and leave Bury to move to Melbourne, Australia, and become a street artist on the city’s sidewalks: “I only had enough money for an outbound flight, so my experience was not at all glamorous, but I was able to experience the world at a time when I was on the verge of giving up my passions and I regained them all again.” Now his life seems to be on the verge of a turning point: “I want to play in the biggest arenas there is. I want to go on tour and show the public who I am. But what I want most is to make people smile. I want to make him feel emotions and make him understand that life isn’t always sad”.