Our Favourite Simlish Covers Of Top Pop Songs From My Chemical Romance To Becca Hatch

It’s no lie, we’re all hopelessly addicted to The Sims. Every now and then I hear from friends and coworkers about how they started revisiting the game and suddenly spent all night playing The Sims.

A huge reason for this is that The Sims is a fantastic life simulator, with some even saying that playing The Sims helped them prepare for real life milestones.

Because of the series’ popularity, there are countless iconic memes about The Sims. From the famous green diamond (the ‘plumbob‘) appearing in a Charli XCX video, to the infamous Simlish language that is both befuddling and charming.

Many have latched on to the unique language, and The Sims creators definitely took notice, quickly bringing on musicians to record some of their biggest songs in Simlish for the release of The Sims 2.

These covers could actually be found in-game within Sims Radio, so you could pair your sweet suburban girl who can’t wait for university with the Indie Sleaze boyfriend that criticises her music tastes together like you’re characters are in a Zach Braff film. You could also just casually listen to these in the background while building the perfect dream home and family, but where’s the fun in that?

Now, with The Sims 4, they’ve taken it one step further by launching “Sims Sessions“ – a platform that brings artists from all over the world into the studio to show off the artist’s creative process of rewriting their song into a Simlish cover.

Sims Sessions is an open invitation to music fans and Simmers to go behind the curtain with musicians who challenge the status quo and experience their creative spark as they record their songs in The Sims‘ signature language. These are great fun, as the artists always fully commit to the bit and put their whole Sim-ussy into the cover.

Here are some of my personal faves from the batch that breathe entirely new life into the songs, proving that the songs are incredible bops no matter what, and add a completely different context to the originals.

Blessed – Becca Hatch

As Australia’s first time in the Sims Sessions studio, Becca could not be a better pick! Becca delivers a banging rendition of her track ‘Blessed’ (or ‘Boofed’ as it’s called in Sims), and I think it might be one of the best RnB versions of a Simlish track to come out.

Expect to use this song to score your Sim’s own personal glow-up as they quit their day job, dump their absentee partner, slip into a fabulous new wardrobe and hit the clubs for a night of flirty nonsense.

Becca’s rendition was also a huge passion project as she grew up dreaming that she’d eventually get to turn one of her songs into Simlish and have it played on Sims Radio.  It’s really dope that it finally happened for her, and the rendition is a cute bop.

‘Suffer Well’ – Depeche Mode

Depeche Mode was probably one of the first big bands to have one of their songs translated into Simlish, and it captures the hilarity and campiness of the entire project. There’s something so hilarious about how melodramatic this song is despite the Simlish words. On one hand, I’m giggling at the crossover, but at the same time hiding under my blanket.

I like to think this is what plays in my Sims heads when I remove the ladder while they’re in the pool, and that slow nihilistic dread settles in that they’re never getting out. We love a family-friendly game.

‘Smile’ – Lily Allen

Remember the absolute hold Machinima had on early Youtube in the 2010s? This is how I feel rewatching this music video for Lily Allen’s “Smile”.

Having an entire music video animated within the video game adds so much to this. The story of the music video is very early 2000s. Man breaks up with girl for another woman, girl gets revenge from the breakup by physically and psychologically torturing the man to the point of burning him alive. Firefighters save him! But not before a hot firefighter steals his new girl from him.

The main character in the music video was actually the inspiration for Gone Girl (citation: it was revealed to me in a dream).

‘Run Away With Me’ – Carly Rae Jepsen

‘Run Away With Me’ might just be the perfect pop song. Don’t take it from me, just ask literally dozens of music nerds and pop fanatics about the saxophone in this song and see them collectively go hog wild at the thought.

This cover adds further proof that this song is just that good, even the Simlish version is so powerful. Carly absolutely went all out on this one and the chorus sounds as triumphant as ever.

I never thought I’d say that a Simlish cover would bring tears to my eyes, but somehow this version did.

‘Na Na Na’ – My Chemical Romance

The band put their whole MCR-ussy into this one. Unironically, this sounds exactly like what you’d hear in the middle of a mosh pit with the MCR crowd singing along. Barely legible, possibly English? Does it matter? Not at all.

This song definitely scored the start of hundreds of Sims characters’ “emo phases” and that’s completely valid.

‘Be Sweet’ – Japanese Breakfast

As a HUGE Japanese Breakfast fan, seeing this pop up was a massive surprise. The video for this is so adorable as well. From the cows, the colour grading of the video and the Simlish vocal melodies harmonising complete jibberish., it screams pure joy.

This collab came to be to promote The Sims Cottage Living expansion pack and the execution was flawless. The video alone made me want to raise a family of cows and live out my cottage-core dreams.

‘Last Friday Night’ – Katy Perry

Sims scholars would be quick to note that this is technically the first Sims Sessions! Please enjoy watching this behind-the-scenes session of Katy Perry absolutely belting her heart out in Simlish to ‘Last Friday Night’.

Ms Perry absolutely commits to the bit and that adds so much to the campy charm of the video. A warning though, you will never be able to hear the original the same way again.

‘Shut Up’ – Black Eyed Peas

In 2004, The Sims released a game called The Urbz: Sims In The City, highlighting the Sims’ life but this time, as the title suggests, in the city. As part of this soundtrack, they included a Simlish cover of Black Eyed Peas “Shut Up”. And the result? The creation of mumble rap. I ironically love this version as it reminds me of Tim & Eric’sHorse and Buggy Ride” in how mumbled and incoherent the Simlish is.

It reminds me of a kid who’s gone up to sing Adele at a school talent show and WOEFULLY overestimated their ability to belt out “Hello” for the first time with no vocal training. So they just mumble the whole thing, praying a bus will ride through the side of the gym and take them out at the same time.

If you’re keen to check out any of the vast Simlish music discography, where you can also see Becca Hatch’s first Sims Sessions and an interview about the process of rewriting her song into Simlish click here.

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