History Main / TheCoverChangesTheGender

* Similarly to the above Ricky Martin example, after CountryMusic singer Ty Herndon came out as gay in 2014, he went on to re-record his 1995 debut single "What Mattered Most" from the perspective of a gay man (so for instance, the opening line "I thought I knew the girl so well" becomes "I thought I knew the ''boy'' so well"). According to WordOfGod, Herndon was in a closeted gay relationship when he first released the song, and had always wanted to redo it accordingly.

** Another famous Music/LeonardCohen Song, ''Hallelujah'' isn't found to have adapted lyrics when covered by a female singer. Propably that's because all references with male pronouns are not seen in reference to the singer's gender. "David" seems to mean the Old Testament's (male) prophet of that name, other references mean {{God}}. In the Bible (and the Torah/Koran), God is referenced to as an [[ValuesDissonance explicitly male ruler]] (capital MALE pronouns) and thus [[AlwaysMale is considered male]] by most Christians (also by most Jews and Muslims, but the song seems to reference to the Christian God in particular).

* "Hindi Ako Iiyak" (I Won't Cry) is a Filipino song that talks about the messy breakup of a husband and wife, leaving their child in the care of the mother. The original 1977 version by Berna Apolinario covers the perspective of the wife (with the last two lines of the first chorus being ''"Ako'y pinulot mo, singdumi ng burak / Binigyang pangalan itong aking anak"'' [You picked me, as dirty as mud / Gave my child a name]). The 1994 version by Flippers, an all-male group, meanwhile, covers the perspective of the husband and omits the last two lines of the first chorus and replaces them with the last two lines of the second chorus (''"Pag-ibig na minsan na ating dinanas / Sa tulad kong putik, tama na at sapat"'' [A love we once felt / To a pile of mud like me, it is good and adequate enough]) throughout the song.

** Male singer [[Music/MagnusUggla Magnus Uggla's]] Swedish version translated the lyrics literally as "Sen så kysste han mig" which gave the song a lot of HoYay

* The same for Music/{{Daughtry}}'s version, which does change the word "he" to "you" or "she" every time.

* Music/RichardThompson's cover of Britney Spears' "Oops, I Did It Again." Spears' version makes it sound as if the singer is an innocent teen who genuinely didn't realise she was leading the guy on. Thompson's sleazy-old-man delivery makes it sound utterly hypocritical and unrepentant.

* Air Supply's cover of Jennifer Rush's "The Power of Love" changes the first lines of the refrain from "'Cause I am your lady and you are my man" to "'Cause you are my lady and I am your man".

* Greg Laswell's cover of Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" takes the song and turns it from an upbeat women's anthem into a slow, melodramatic melody that fits with his style, changing the parent lines so that the Father's line comes first.

* The Fiery Furnaces' "Single Again" is an adaptation of a traditional folk song that's usually sung from a male POV - vocalist Eleanor Friedberger sings it with all the female pronouns to male. This ends up overlapping into TheCoverChangesTheMeaning - it's usually performed as a humorous MisogynySong, but in their version it seems like the narrator has been through multiple abusive relationships. In particular, the lyric "he beat me, he banged me, he swore he would hang me" comes off as unsettling, whereas in the traditional male POV version it was [[DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale intended to be funny]].

* The Fiery Furnaces' "Single Again" is an adaptation of a traditional folk song that's usually sung from a male POV - vocalist Eleanor Friedberger sings it with all the female pronouns to male. This ends up overlapping into TheCoverChangesTheMeaning - it's usually performed as a humorous MisogynySong, but in their version it seems like the narrator has been through multiple abusive relationships. In particular, the lyric "he beat me, he banged me, he swore he would hang me" comes off as unsettling, whereas in the traditional male POV version was [[DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale intended to be funny]]

* The Fiery Furnaces' "Single Again" is an adaptation of a traditional folk song that's usually sung from a male POV - vocalist Eleanor Friedberger sings it with all the female pronouns to male. This ends up overlapping into TheCoverChangesTheMeaning - it's usually performed as a humorous MisogynySong, but in their version it seems like the narrator has been through multiple abusive relationships.

[[TropesAreTools This can work well in many cases]], while sometimes it can seem forced and awkward, sometimes becoming more of a distraction than it would've been if the artist had simply used the original lyrics. It can also come across as HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday, especially if the original version is particularly well known.

* Music/SarahBrightman's genderflipped version of "The Music of the Night" from ''ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' is a tad creepy, simply because Miss Brightman was the original Christine in that musical.

* In his 2017 Edinburgh show ''I'm Still Here'', Music/MitchBenn sang his mid-nineties song "Be My ''Series/DoctorWho'' Girl". He then sang an entirely new version, in honour of Creator/JodieWhittaker - "Let Me Be Your ''Doctor Who'' Boy".

* Boyce Avenue did a PerspectiveFlip of Music/KatyPerry's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAUMU3QQE6w Teenage Dream]]" and turned it into a SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming Moment|s}}:

** And don't forget "Gimme gimme gimme (a man after midnight)". Of course, with them being gay, this one doesn't even qualify as camp, since it mentions nothing about the gender of the singer.

* The All Saints version of Under the Bridge changes the Red Hot Cilli Peppers line "she's my companion" to "he's my companion". This seems particularly unnecessary when you consider that "she" is a city.

* Averted ''twice'' on Ciccone Youth's ''The Whitey Album'', with Kim Gordon's cover of RobertPalmer's "Addicted to Love" and Thurston Moore's cover of {{Music/Madonna}}'s "Into the Groove"; the album itself is a tongue-in-cheek "tribute" to 80's music and pop culture.
* Kaki King averts this with her cover of Justin Timberlake's "Lovestoned." Also might be an example of TheCoverChangesTheMeaning, it goes from being just an infatuation song to a song about discovering one's ClosetKey.
* While not originally sung by a member of the opposite sex, J Mascis & The Fog's cover of the Smiths' classic "The Boy With The Thorn In His Side" manages to turn it into a particularly bad example of HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday.

** Music/TheCardigans on Music/TomJones' cover of Music/TalkingHeads' "Burning Down the House", Nina Persson is now the "...ordinary girl, [[TitleDrop burning down the house]]".

** [[https://youtu.be/wJStTqPmcMY Tom Gross]] also did a cover like that (only with the minor change to leave out the word "cousin"). It starts with a scene with a preacher from a Christian church giving an [[HeteronormativeCrusader outright homophobic preachment]]. The whole cover has a [[Gayngst much more dramatic undertone]].

** Played straight, however, in the cover of Music/TalkingHeads' "Burning Down the House" with Music/TomJones. Nina Persson now the "...ordinary girl".

* Averted by TheCardigans cover of RestlessHeart's "The Bluest Eyes in Texas", turning a sad country song about leaving your woman into... well, the same thing, only now [[InSpace with lesbians!]]

** They've done this with several non-Abba covers, namely Series/ThePartridgeFamily's "Walking in the Rain" and Ike & TinaTurner's "River Deep, Mountain High". It's rather amusing to hear a man sing "When I was a little girl, I had a rag doll/The only doll I've ever owned"...

* [[Series/TheXFactor Danyl]] [[BiTheWay Johnson]] did this in his cover of "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" from ''Theatre/{{Dreamgirls}}'', prompting a sarcastic comment concerning whether it was necessary by one of the show's judges, effectively outing him on live TV. The InternetBackdraft has been... significant.

* Music/AshleyTisdale's cover of "[[Music/RickAstley Never Gonna Give You Up]]," which had already gotten tons of InternetBackdraft, replaced the lyrics "Any other guy" with "Any other girl," which doesn't really rhyme with "I."

* "Fire," written by Music/BruceSpringsteen and originally recorded by Robert Gordon, was made much more famous by The Pointer Sisters who sang it with a PerspectiveFlip.