Three years ago, I discovered one of the best voices of our generation.
I was meandering through the depths of Soundcloud looking for new music when I came across an obscure cover of the Nea song, “Some Say.” This song is more famously known for its remix by Felix Jean, but nonetheless, it is an amazing song. This cover was by a German artist named Adam Ulanicki. I was expecting a deeper voice, however, I was pleasantly surprised to hear higher vocals. Ulanicki’s voice was smooth, elegant, beautiful and touching; he breathed a new and different life into the pop song over a beautiful orchestral and piano background instrumental.
I was hooked.
The 57-second snippet was some of the best music I had heard in a while. I immediately went to Ulanicki’s profile on Soundcloud and there were not that many songs, just a bunch of one-minute snippets and covers of random pop songs. A lot of them were mashups, such as “Soulmate x Disturbia,” “Airplanes x What’s My Name?” and my personal favorite, “Let You Down x Heart Attack.”
I am not a habitual Soundcloud user. Although I am a product of the 2015-16 Soundcloud era rap and enjoy listening to Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Yachty and Playboi Carti, I never used it as my main streaming platform.
On occasion, I’ll revisit the platform and the playlists I made of obscure songs and random mashups, Travis Scott leaks or songs that just never made it to Spotify. I would always revisit the “Some Say” cover and put it on repeat for hours at a time, whenever I was feeling sick of the same old Spotify playlist.
In summer 2022, almost two years after I had first discovered the infamous cover, I decided to check up on Ulanicki on Instagram, since I noticed he hadn’t posted a new song on Soundcloud in almost a year. I brushed past it and assumed he was just done making music. Then in early 2023, I saw a post come across my feed from Adam Ulanicki. It read, “January 27–presave link is in my bio,” and I was floored.
The time that Ulanicki spent absent from his accounts was time that he spent in his transition, as he is a transgender artist. He was finally releasing the full version of the “Some Say” cover. This time, finishing the song with his new, fully-transitioned voice. The result was a fusion of harmony between his old voice and his new voice. The duet was unlike anything that I had ever heard.
In a time where transgender artists are facing more scrutiny and obstacles than ever, it’s important to discover and support smaller artists that are just getting their start. Since the beginning of 2023, at least 83 active bills targeting transgender individuals were passed across the country, which makes it harder for transgender artists to feel safe and accepted while promoting their music, according to Rolling Stone.
Music is an avenue for people to express themselves and share with the world their talents and abilities as artists. We should, as a society, encourage more people, especially transgender artists, to express themselves in creative ways. It helps people find themselves and by encouraging this, we also encourage acceptance in our society and in our creative industries.
