Aleksandar Mileusnić didn’t appear to be your average budding star when he took the stage at Britain’s Got Talent in 2018. He identified himself as a 23-year-old council employee, pointed proudly to his expectant wife in the crowd, and said he hoped this audition would help his expanding family.
His selection of “Seven Nation Army” by The White Stripes, which is typically a rock anthem rather than a talent-show ballad, caused some controversy. But when the band started playing, Aleksandar changed the course of events. He slowed it down, added jazzy phrasing and beautiful swing, and all of a sudden the well-known riff turned into a polished, retro-style performance. Amanda Holden remarked that it didn’t helped that he was also “cute,” while Alesha Dixon described his version as “charming, seductive, and alluring.”
By the last chorus, the crowd was standing and applauding as if they were at a major performance rather than a tryout. Simon Cowell praised the way Aleksandar combined swing, jazz, and big-band influences to create something completely new, telling him it felt like they were “watching a star being born.” All four judges gave him a standing ovation. In addition to impressing the judges, that one performance made millions of people aware of a new singer and demonstrated that, with the correct direction, even a rock song can sound like classic elegance.
