Unsung heroes are all over the place; you just need to know where to look for them. The notion of YouTube rabbit holes is nothing new. When you go down one, you never quite know what you’ll bring back with you when you come back up. Sometimes you find conspiracy theories. Sometimes you encounter things you’ll never understand. And then there are times you discover the hero you didn’t know the world needed. We discovered one of those heroes and his trusty ukulele.
The History of Kentauros Owen
A little over 9 years ago, on March 2nd, 2017, the first publicly listed upload appeared from Kentauros Owen. It’s a cover of the Elvis Costello song, “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding.” It’s a simple video of just him with a kazoo and his ukulele singing the song, translated into Japanese. We do not know anything about this man. It’s not our place to go searching about his life. All we know is that he has consistently, for nine straight years, continued to upload songs in this style.
Owen’s voice isn’t the greatest, but it’s not unpleasant by any means. He knows how to carry a tune well enough to be fun and engaging. He also carries it well enough that you can tell what he’s singing, even if you don’t understand Japanese. When this man sings “Heaven is a Place on Earth,” you know exactly what the song is within seconds.
What’s so fascinating is his music selection. Owen pulls from all corners of the ’70s and ’80s primarily. He dips into other decades, but the range is staggering. This guy will belt out the underrated Climie Fisher song “Love Changes (Everything)” to The Stooges’ “Now I Wanna Be Your Dog.” Have you ever wanted to hear the Pet Shop Boys classic, “Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money)” in Japanese, with kazoo and uke? Thanks to Kentauros Owen, you can.
1,000 Songs Strong
As we’re writing this, we’re listening to him sing “Goody Two Shoes” by Adam Ant. He’s knocking it out just as solidly as anyone would’ve expected him to based on the dozens of covers we’ve listened to him do. Again, we don’t know anything about Kentauros Owen. We’ve never messaged him or spoken to him. We do see where he’s two videos away from hitting 1,000 uploads, and he only has 1.16K subscribers. We feel like the extreme level of dedication he’s shown deserves some love.
Look, the world is in a perilous place right now. We’re not pretending that Japanese ukulele covers are what we need to get through life right now, but it can’t hurt. We guarantee that if you go through his list of videos, you’re going to come across something you’ll want to hear. Keep on rocking, Kentauros! When you release that 1,000th video, you deserve congratulations!
