‘Clash of The Cover Bands’ Recap: The Ultimate Cover Band is Announced
Casey Durkin/E! Entertainment Reading Time: 3 minutes
Clash of the Cover Bands returned on E! for the final episode that featured Rus Anderson Covering Elton John and Erika Moul Covering Lady Gaga. The winner of the season as a whole was announced at the end of the episode.
The Last Cover Band Battle to End the Series
Before beginning the battle, the show explained that tonight’s theme was paying tribute to music’s platinum icons. At the end of the night the judges crowned the winner of this battle and first winner of the overall series.
The first cover artist of the night was Rus Anderson covering Elton John. He’s from scotland and learned how to play John’s music at only five years old. He’s an artist that always puts in 110%, especially being Elton John. His wife makes his outfits, so his tribute already gets an A plus from me. Anderson walked on stage looking just like John. He had the correct outfit and stage presence.
If there was anything off about his performance, it was his voice. The judges said that his overall performance was amazing. Even though they considered him amazing singer already they thought his music should be brought down a half step. Rus Anderson was set to meet with Kuk Harrell the vocal coach.
The other performer was Erika Moul covering Lady Gaga. This singer was in college when she heard Lady Gaga music, she immediately knew that her life had been changed that day. Later in life, her boss told her to perform as Gaga every month locally before moving out to Las Vegas, Nevada. I loved how she looked so much like Lady Gaga on stage, but I thought her voice was extremely different at first. She has great vocals on her own, but I didn’t think she sounded like Lady Gaga. The judges were really impressed with the performance, but still had the artist meet with the vocal expert as well.
Rus Anderson Rocks the Stage like the Rocketman Himself
Kuk Harrell worked with both Rus Anderson and Erika Moul to sound more like their tributes. Harrell helped Anderson pull his voice into levels he had never experimented in before, whereas he helped Moul get out of her head. The judges thought that Moul was over singing the part too much.
Both singers walked into the battle round with new found confidence. I thought both singers sounded a lot better after their coaching. If I had to choose between the artists, I think I’d choose Erika Moul as the winner. Although Rus Anderson was amazing, his voice was still too far off from the iconic artist. Anderson truly had some of the best outfits this show has seen to date. If he wasn’t singing you’d never know it wasn’t John.
Who Won the Series?
After determining the best artist of the night the judges announced Erika Moul covering Lady Gaga as the winner of the episode. Moul went home with $10,000 and returned to the series via zoom for the final announcement. All of the previous episode winners were shown virtually tuning in for the announcement.
Before announcing the winner of the overall the judges went through each act and said what they liked the most about each person. After 10 episodes of this series Karen Hester Covering Dolly Parton was crowned as the ultimate cover band. She will now perform on The Jimmy Fallon Show and gets to bring home $25,000. I was so happy that Karen Hester won the series, I truly felt that it was earned. At the end of the episode Jimmy Fallon showed up on another screen and personally congratulated her.
