Jessie Ware, the British singer-songwriter who turned out one of my favorite albums of 2012 has done it again. The amazingly talented woman recently did a beautiful cover of Rihanna’s massive hit “Diamonds” for BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge series.

On the track, the singer takes the powerful pop-ballad and turns it into a sultry, seductive song that has a more personal and soulful sound than its original counterpart.

If you love cover songs as much as I do, you should definitely check this one out. Whether you’re taken or single, it’s the perfect addition to your love songs’ playlist!

Listen after the jump…

I’m definitely not the biggest Taylor Swift fan out there (I’m pedestrian at best), but I’m obsessed with “I Knew You Were Trouble.” IMHO, it’s her best song to date, with “You Belong To Me” a very close second. As I often do with songs I’m in lurve with, I waste copious amounts of time searching YouTube for acoustic covers. Lame, right? In my defense, this time my search was initiated by Swift herself.

The 23-year-old singer was impressed so much by one cover, she tweeted it to her fans. British singer-songwriter Tom Odell “floored” (in Taylor’s words) her with his stripped down rendition of her hit song. The 22-year-old Brit really gave the track some angst and oomph during his performance for BBC’s Live Lounge series. The other one I’m sharing today is from one of the child stars of ABC’s hit comedy, Modern Family. Care to make any guesses? Check out both covers below.

listen to the acoustic cover after the jump

P!nk is currently across the pond on a promotional tour. This past weekend, the 33-year-old singer performed on the results show of the UK edition of The X Factor. Naturally, her next stop was over to BBC Radio 1 to perform a set for their Live Lounge series. If you’re a fan of the British radio show, you know that visiting artists are required to perform two songs- one of theirs acoustically and a cover of a track by one of their compatriots.

P!nk chose to cover Alicia Keys’ “Girl On Fire.” Great choice. Before checking out the audio, I had high expectations from P!nk. After all, she did start her career singing R&B and the woman has a phenomenal voice. The “Try” singer can sing on pitch even hanging from the rafters upside down or performing contemporary dance with Colt Prattes. For me, I’d be just out of breath standing within a foot of the studly Broadway actor.

Before you listen to her cover, I quickly wanted to congratulate Alicia Keys for scoring her fifth No. 1 album. Girl on Fire moved 159,000 copies, representing her lowest debut ever, but it was still enough to land the pole position. Last week’s champion Rihanna dropped to No. 6 in her second week with 72,000 units. Once again, Taylor Swift landed in the runner-up slot with 137,000 copies of Red.

listen to the cover after the jump

Usher’s seventh studio album just debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. “Looking 4 Myself” is his fourth consecutive chart topper following, “Confessions”, “Here I Stand” and “Raymond v Raymond”. I guess all those promotional appearances paid off. One of those media stops included one across the pond- BBC Radio 1.

I love it when musicians stop over there for their Live Lounge series. Why? Because they are asked to cover a contemporary hit along with performing one of their own singles. I love a good song cover. Typically, the artist sings both songs acoustically, but not in Usher’s case. I wonder why he chose to perform with a full-out band. Not that I complaining. His cover of Foster The People’s “Pumped Up Kicks” is wicked. Check it out along with a performance of his single “Scream” below.

check out both performances after the jump

Proving she could sing anything and sound great on it, Kelly Clarkson nails a cover of Coldplay and Rihanna’s “Princess of China“. She’s so flawless, perhaps Chris Martin should’ve called her up instead of the “We Found Love” singer. Queen Kelly, actually makes the track sound better than it is. Imagine her flying in the air fighting Martin à la “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” instead of RiRi. Now that’s she’s skinny Kelly again, I’m sure those straps would’ve held ;)

Not even jet lag could bring down Clarkson’s powerful vocals. Early Wednesday morning in London, the original “American Idol” performed an acoustic set for BBC Radio 1′s Live Lounge series. As usual, the radio station requires the visiting artist to perform a cover of a contemporary song. Given that Kelly’s recent tour involved a covers segment, you’d think she’d do an encore performance of one of those tracks. Not so, for my precious Kelly. Instead she chose Coldplay and Rihanna’s collaboration “Princess of China”. Listen to an audio of Kelly slaying it hardcore below.

If you’re a Kelly fan like myself, you should also check out the acoustic version of her current single, “Dark Side“. It’s also quite good.

listen to both performances after the jump

Given that FUN. and Gotye are arguably two of the biggest breakout artists of 2012, it’s only fitting that one of them cover the other. American indie band FUN. dropped by BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge and performed two acoustic sets. One of which was their huge hit, “We Are Young” and the other a cover of Aussie sensation Gotye’s “Somebody I Used To Know“. The end result is nothing short of amazing.

I admit, I’m a sucker for an acoustic song cover. You can truly tell how talented a musician is when they are forced to perform with minimal instrumentation. Even though FUN.’s performance went off without a hitch, the group faced a bit of drama earlier on. Firstly, band member Andrew got a bad case of food poisoning and couldn’t play the piano which was the basis of their original cover version.

Secondly, they weren’t sure how Hayley Williams from Paramore was going to link in so she could perform Kimbra’s parts of “Somebody I Used To Love“. In the end, the technological obstacle proved inconsequential. Check out both FUN.’s performances below. If you weren’t a fan before, you will be after listening to them.

listen to their cover after the jump

Hot off the heels of the release of their new album Mylo Xyloto, alt rockers Coldplay the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge to play a few tracks off the new record. One of the songs that’s getting a lot of attention is their collaboration with Rihanna on the track, Princess of China. The song is currently riding high at #4 on iTunes. Pretty great considering it’s not an official single from the album.

In honor of the great collabo, Coldplay performed a cover of Rihanna’s We Found Love for the crowd at the lounge. Sometimes, I’m not the biggest fan of fast dance songs turned slow. However, the way the UK band arranged this is absolutely brillant. The piano simulating Calvin Harris’ driving dance synth is brillant. But, it’s when the guitar riff comes in for the last instrumental break that has me hooked. Give the cover a listen below.

Coldplay’s version of “We Found Love” after the jump.

By now you’re probably award of how big a fan I am of BBC Radio 1′s Live Lounge series. I love hearing artists sing their songs live without any post-production. It gives their songs a new dimension. To boot, the visiting music act also has to perform a cover of one of their contemporaries’ hits. It’s always interesting to see who they end up deciding to cover. While some are predictable, most are pretty unexpected like Avril Lavigne.

The Canadian singer dropped by the UK radio show this week to perform her current hit, “What The Hell“. When it came time to choose her cover song, she surprisingly chose Ke$ha’s “Tik Tok”. It’s surprising because Ke$ha seems like the kind of artist Avril would make fun of and think she’s better than. Perhaps, that’s why Lavigne choose her, to slightly mock her. Hey, you never know.

I have to admit, watching Avril read the lyrics trying to get through the song is kinda adorable. For a song that’s mostly sing talk, Lavigne does a pretty good vocal on it. I like her take on the chorus. She almost makes “Tik Tok” sound like a singer’s song. Well, maybe that’s a bit of a stretch, but you know what I mean. Check it out below and decide for yourself.

listen to Avril’s version after the jump