Watch St Vincent cover David Bowie’s ‘Young Americans’ on ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’
St Vincent took to the stage on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to deliver a thrilling cover of David Bowie’s ‘Young Americans’.
The performance, which aired on December 17th, is part of the ‘Under The Cover’ series on the longrunning CBS show.
Prior to the performance, Annie Clark appeared on the sofa to chat with the late-night host and explained why she chose ‘Young Americans’, revealing, “Well, I performed it at a benefit concert called Love Rocks,” which took place at the Beacon Theatre in New York in 2023.
Colbert was also in attendance at the charity show, recalling, “As a matter of fact, when you started doing ‘Young Americans’ on-stage, one of the old crew guys there, because at the Beacon people have been there a really long time, he goes, ‘Wow, it takes some balls to cover this song’.”
He continued, “Then, about a minute later, I turned to him, and I said, ‘Looks like she’s got ’em.'”
Elsewhere during the conversation, St Vincent also revealed the three artists she’d like to cover her material. Her first choice was Erykah Badu, who Clark hailed as “one of my absolute heroes”, and revealed that “on many occasions I have tried to befriend Erykah Badu and it has not gone well” on social media.
The other two names that make up Clark’s wishlist are Doechii and The Slits. She also named The Slits’ version of ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’ as her favourite cover of all time, as well as giving props to Jeff Buckley’s ‘Hallelujah’.
During the performance on Colbert, Clark subtly tweaked the lyrics in ‘Young Americans’ from “Do you remember, your President Nixon?” to “Do you remember, your President Biden?”
After a busy 2025 that has seen Clark continue to tour All Born Screaming, including at Glastonbury Festival in June, she only has a handful of dates planned for 2026, including the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.
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