MYSTERIOUS GUZHENG MUSICIAN PLAYS INCREDIBLE COVER OF

There are hundreds of renditions of the Eagles' "Hotel California," an incredibly popular song. Legends like Nancy Sinatra, Frank Ocean, and the Gypsy Kings have all performed it, but one mysterious musician has shared a special rendition with the world. The mysterious musician MoYun has covered this well-known song from the 1970s using a guzheng. The outcome is breathtakingly lovely and speaks to "Hotel California's" harmonic complexity.

A Chinese plucked zither is called a guzheng. These days, this wooden instrument is typically 64 inches long with 21, 25, or 26 strings. The guzheng is renowned for its sharp, metallic tones and is tuned in a major pentatonic scale. Owing to its characteristics and heritage, traditional Chinese folk music is performed on it most often.

Since it can be challenging to translate a song with several sections and instruments, the performer provided an explanation of her decisions in the description of the video. 

“The use of guitar in Hotel California can be regarded as one of the classic arrangements in history, especially the 1994 live version. So I made some deletions in the vocal part, focusing on the two guitar solos of the prelude and the ending.”

Known for rarely revealing her face on camera, the artist wore a traditional outfit in this video, seemingly honouring the instrument's timeless quality. She continued to write in the video description,“ The costume this time is Wei Jin style wide-sleeved cross-collared Hanfu. For the convenience of plucking the instrument, panbo are added. (襻膊, pàn bó, originated from the Song Dynasty, a tool used to roll up the sleeves for easy operation), the hat is a hand-woven straw hat, the overall mix and match looks relatively ‘plain,' and it feels like the rice planting will start in the next second hahahahahahaha.”