At 18 years old, Amandla Stenberg is running out of occupations to be brilliant at. Arguably they’d ticked musician off the list in March, casually dropping into a Dev Hynes video to assist the Freetown Sound star on piano and violin. But Amandla’s pop star status has now been confirmed with the arrival of their debut single — a stunning cover of “Let My Baby Stay” by beloved slack-rocker Mac Demarco.
The track comes from the soundtrack of Amandla’s new film Everything, Everything, out May 19. And “cover” almost sounds reductive. Amandla’s tribute to the Pepperoni Playboy turns his guitar-driven Salad Days song into a transcendental R&B jam. Amandla even self-directed (and danced in) a neon-lit visual for the single.
“I sneaky snuck one of my favorite songs, ‘Let My Baby Stay’ by @macdemarco into a scene in Everything, Everything coming out next week,” Amandla wrote on Instagram. “Thank you to stand up man & pepperoni playboy Mac for blessing our movie with this song. That lil seed blossomed into my own cover of it recorded for the soundtrack and produced by @levenkali.”
Mac is yet to give a shout-out to Amandla’s remix. But he’s quite the fan of unexpected covers, whether guitar jams performed in a French dog park or spontaneous Billy Joel anthems at after-parties in Bushwick. Please join us in crossing every finger for a future duet.
Credits
Text Hannah Ongley
Image via Instagram