Valerie June Releases Cover of "What a Wonderful World"
Valerie June Releases Cover of "What a Wonderful World"
Valerie June has released a new version of "What a Wonderful World," the song Louis Armstrong recorded in 1967. Rolling Stone reported the release on 13 November 2026.
A cover is a new recording of a song that someone else first made famous. The original songwriters still earn money each time the song is used, and the performer who records the new version owns that recording.
The new version follows her Brighter Blue EP, which came out in September through Concord, a record company. An EP, short for extended play, is a release with more songs than a single but fewer than a full album.
June said her cover was inspired by her work with the American Revival programme, run by cellist Yo-Yo Ma and Nicholas Ma. She has been working with elementary and middle school students through the programme. Spending time with them, she said, gives her hope for a more beautiful world, and that hope is the feeling she wanted the song to carry.
The video for the cover shows her in a room decorated with white flowers. She plays the banjo, a five-string instrument with a drum-like body, while a pedal steel guitar plays alongside. Pedal steel is a guitar played with a metal bar and foot pedals, which change the notes and give the instrument its sliding, singing sound.
For listeners, the release is a chance to hear a song many people already know, played on instruments more often heard in country and folk music. It is also a reminder that a single song can carry a message from one generation of performers to the next.
