Aug 15, 2022

Australian country music star Kasey Chambers had audiences enthralled with a special surprise on her recent Behind the Barricades tour – an epic, eight-minute version of rapper Eminem’s signature song.

There was no country rapping to be found, though, as Chambers turned Emimem’s 2002 8 Mile anthem Lose Yourself into a bluesy, slowly building rock ballad that positively exploded with passion.

The song was an instant hit with fans, who responded with standing ovations and rapturous applause night after night.

Now, thanks to those same fans, the song has today been released to stream alongside a video compiling footage of Chambers performing Lose Yourself on tour.

Lose yourself in the music below:



It may seem an unlikely cover for the country queen whose biggest hits include Not Pretty Enough and the Cyndi Lauper cover True Colours, but as Chambers explained, she’s been an Eminem fan on the sly since the early days of her career.

“Eminem has been one of my favourite songwriters for many years. We listen to a lot of him in our house. I’ve been mostly influenced in my life by writers who bravely put fearless emotion into lyrics and no one does that better than Eminem,” she said.

“I don’t really care too much about what genre music fits into, just that the sound comes from a real, authentic place from inside the artist. Eminem makes me feel things when I hear him. Not always the most comfortable things, but I’m not sure that music is always meant to make us feel comfortable.”

Chambers said adapting the song from its original form as a beat-heavy rap anthem to a slowed-down country-rock ballad wasn’t without its challenges.

“I’ve had it in the back of my mind for years that I knew there was a version inside me somewhere of Lose Yourself on a banjo that I wanted to play live but it was really just for the self-indulgent reason that I love the song so much,” she said.

“It took Covid lockdown to give me enough time to learn the lyrics properly and write a melody to it.”

Kasey’s version of Lose Yourself is available to stream from today.