Carla Wehbe has taken on a decades-old classic for her Like A Version debut, and absolutely delivered.
The Eora/Sydney artist slowed things down for a striking, emotionally charged cover of ABBA’s 1980 heartbreak anthem, “The Winner Takes It All”, backed by a full band, a string section, pedal steel guitar and ethereal backing vocals. The result is nothing short of spine-tingling.
“I wanted to make it as emotional and as powerful, I guess, as possible,” Wehbe said of her rendition, admitting that she threw every kind of instrument she enjoys at the cover to put her own spin on it… and she nailed it. There’s a quiet intensity in her performance, a raw vulnerability that radiates through every note. It’s the kind of cover that makes you stop everything and just feel.
“I chose to cover ABBA because they’re one of my biggest inspirations,” she shared. “I grew up listening to ABBA, my mum is obsessed with ABBA, so it was a song that kind of soundtracked my growing up, I guess, and I just always dreamed of doing an ABBA song if I ever got the opportunity to do Like A Version.”
With each lyric, Wehbe channels not just her love of the Swedish pop icons, but a deep emotional connection to a song that’s clearly been in her bones for years. “The older eras of music are the ones that speak to me the most, and where my heart feels happiest when I listen,” she said.
The cover is already making waves as one of the most goosebump-inducing moments in recent LAV memory; a performance that lingers long after the final note. No doubt Mama Wehbe is somewhere singing along with pride, not least because Wehbe also performed her original track “Gentle With Me”, from her EP Dark in the Light, which dropped on June 5th.
Described as a project exploring “the idea that light and dark coexist in all of us,” the new EP continues her exploration of emotional duality. “These songs came from moments where I didn’t know if I was breaking or healing — but it was probably both,” Wehbe says. “The EP lives in the in-between: the heart ache beneath the smile, the flicker of hope inside despair, the beauty in contradiction, even the darkness inside of joy.
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“It’s not about choosing sides – it’s about learning to live with both. Light bleeds, shadows breathe, and somewhere in the blur between the two, these songs found me. Maybe they’ll find you too.”
