YouTube is littered with cover versions of Willow Smith's 'Whip My Hair.' But few have attracted attention like 18-year-old Illinois native Katie Gavin, whose acoustic, bluesy take on the pop hit has garnered more than 210,000 views.
Praise from MTV's Buzzworthy was far from the end for Gavin's cover. Last week, Smith chimed in her approval of Gavin's version, telling PopEater in a video interview, "Thank you, Katie Gavin, for doing an awesome version of my song."
For Gavin, that alone would be enough to have made the cover successful. "To hear Willow say that she likes the cover and she thought I was good -- and to hear my name leave her lips -- was such a crazy thing," Gavin tells PopEater. She found out about Smith's name-check via Twitter while at school. "To be acknowledged by her and for the song itself to get her seal of approval means so much to me. It's kind of the point where I can be truly satisfied with everything that's happened because I like her, and I like her song."
That would be enough, but it's not even close to the benefits Gavin has seen from her cover sensation. "This video is the reason I've had attention from people in New York and in LA, and I'm connecting with people that have started listening to my songs," says Gavin, who will play shows in New York on Friday, Jan. 14, and Monday, Jan. 17. "And I think that's actually the most rewarding out of all this -- that people started listening to me as an artist because they liked the cover. They went to my page, started listening to my original songs and have become fans of my music."
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