Vin Diesel Proves There’s No Wrong Way To Honor Dolly Parton
Who among us hasn’t taken a few minutes to belt an overly sincere version of “I Will Always Love You” in the privacy of our own homes in the 72 hours since Dolly Parton’s death?
Based on his latest Instagram post, Vin Diesel has. Unlike most of us, Vin Diesel, a world-famous celebrity with hundreds of millions of social media followers, decided to make his Parton rendition public.
The results are almost moving in their self-seriousness: At one point, Diesel’s falsetto cracks when he sings the word “please” in the line “goodbye, please don’t cry.” Diesel, an occasional hobbyist musician, seems to have spent some time actually recording whatever this is. By the time he gets to the second chorus, his vocals are seemingly double-tracked. Whether these are real musicians or an AI-prompted arrangement, he has a sparse full band backing him as he takes on Parton’s immortal 1973 hit. The caption? A prayer-hands emoji.
The clip has barely caused a blip in his social media: It has significantly less engagement than recent posts of a car revving its engine or a blurry photo of Diesel holding a black dog while standing near water. But on a week when everyone’s timelines have been filled with sentimental Parton tributes, Diesel’s post — perhaps the most sentimental of them all — has been something of a moment that’s divided the internet and provided lots of comic relief. (One recent headline put it kindly: “Vin Diesel Leaves Dolly Parton Fans Speechless With Musical Tribute to Late Country Icon”).
Those encountering Diesel’s Parton cover this week with no context may not know that there’s a rich history of Diesel singing dead-serious torch songs. In 2013, Diesel broke a much more innocent version of the internet with an out-of-focus video singing Rihanna’s “Stay” that seemed so earnest it felt like performance art (Diesel later clarified he sang the song as a tribute to his longtime partner). Editor’s picks The 250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century
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