A local singer’s cover of a Demi Lovato song was so good, the pop star herself heard it and loved it.
Raymond Salgado of Lantzville was featured last week in a Glamour magazine video segment called You Sang My Song.
Producers came across Salgado’s cover of Lovato’s song Sober and e-mailed him last month asking him if he’d like to be part of the segment. He replied very quickly and got the opportunity to watch Lovato react to his cover and hear her feedback.
“He did a really good job of making it feel heartfelt and bring me back into that emotion and that’s what music is about, is about feeling, so he did exactly that,” Lovato told Glamour. “Raymond, that was so beautiful. I’m just so blown away by the soul in your voice, too. I could really tell that you were feeling it, and I loved it.”
Salgado has been listening to Lovato’s music since he was 11 or 12 and saw the musical Camp Rock, in which she had the lead role. He was “amazed” by her voice then and has remained a fan through the ups and downs of her stardom.
Lovato told Glamour that Sober is a “heavy” song that represented a dark time for her, and Salgado said some of the lyrics hit home for him, too.
“She’s such a huge advocate for mental health and addiction and it’s so hard, as an artist, sharing your feelings and I just love how vulnerable and how honest she can be,” he said. “I think that she’s a really good example of what a strong and independent woman is.”
Salgado said he didn’t know what Lovato would say about his cover, so to hear her react so positively made him thankful and glad that he had paid tribute.
During a pandemic that’s now lasted a full year, Salgado has found ways to be creative and reach an audience. He has more than 450,000 TikTok followers and more than 100,000 Instagram followers, and shares covers as well as snippets of original music while working on his first EP. It was hard to keep the Demi Lovato reaction video a secret, but since it was posted Thursday, he’s heard lots of congratulations, including supportive messages from some of Lovato’s fans who have tracked him down.
“The fact that people are so supportive of what I do and are inspired by the stuff that I put out, whether that’s a cover or an original song, it really just means the world to me,” Salgado said. “Because music is a saving grace and it’s my saving grace and it’s a God-given talent that I’m grateful for.”
He said the pandemic is a hard time for everyone, but whatever it’s brought and however it’s affected his mood, music has been a constant and a significant part of his life.
“When I did get the e-mail [from Glamour] it was almost like a glimmer of hope for me, because I was going through a lot,” Salgado said. “It was just a constant reminder to keep going and growing as an artist.”
READ ALSO: Lantzville singer Raymond Salgado raises his voice on CTV reality show The Launch
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