Daecolm snapped up by record label after R&B cover of Abba’s Dancing Queen went viral

A singer whose R&B cover of Abba’s Dancing Queen was viewed 21 million times in only two days has signed to a major label.

Daecolm, 24, has been snapped up by Polydor after his version of the 1976 classic went viral when it was posted it on Facebook last month.

He has written songs for Chris Brown, Trey Songz and Craig David, but now hopes to launch a career singing his own music.

He said: “I just enjoy the idea of taking an older song and giving it a modern twist. If I was going to be covering anything, I didn’t want to go down the normal route of taking a top 20 hit to grab attention, which is what a lot of artists today do.

“I wanted to take a risk. As I watched the hits increase I thought, ‘If only this was my bank account! I would be sitting on my own island by now!’”

Daecolm, who was born in Zimbabwe and moved to south-west London when he was six months old, said: “My dad got me into music. I wasn’t interested in the slightest until I was about 13 or 14.

“I used to play the piano in secret because I was too embarrassed to play in front of anyone. My dad heard me playing and put me in touch with a songwriter friend of his.

“I started writing songs and that’s when I began to realise music could be a possibility. I now want to do my original music, and show what I can do with my own stuff.”