Time to add one more tale to the ever-growing legend of Rep. George Santos — the dude loves himself some karaoke.
Earlier this week, Santos was spotted at a karaoke night in Washington D.C., though reportedly demurred when it was his turn to sing. Luckily, for those curious if Long Island’s most imaginative representative has pipes, Rolling Stone has tracked down what appears to be Santos’ old account on the singing app Smule.
The account belongs to “georgedevolder,” which is one of the many versions of Santos’ full name — George Anthony Devolder Santos — that he’s used throughout his life. The profile picture shows Santos sporting a bowtie and giving the ol’ duck face like any self-respecting geriatric millennial would’ve been doing in the mid-2010s. (Santos appears to be sporting the exact same outfit he wore when he met Bethenny Frankel in 2014.)
Now, before we get to the good stuff, we want to state unequivocally that karaoke, in all its forms — including a janky app — is sacred. As Rolling Stone’s resident Karaoke King, Rob Sheffield, wrote in his 2013 book, Turn Around Bright Eyes, “It’s a universally supportive environment — nobody goes to scoff or judge… It’s a temporary but intense bond between strangers, a shipboard romance, a republic we create where we gladly consent to treat the other people around us like rock stars.”
So, even if it sure as hell looks like you lied your way to Congress with grotesque fibs about being descended from Holocaust survivors and losing your mother to the after effects of ash poisoning on 9/11, you do not deserve to be karaoke-shamed. You probably deserve to be shamed for those other things, but not for giving it your absolute all on Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.”
And “Hallelujah” is indeed one of the songs Santos recorded himself singing on Smule when he was uploading content about eight years ago. Honestly, it’s a solid karaoke rendition. Santos carries the tune well, adds some gravel-voiced theatricality, and most respectably, powers through the hard-to-hit notes with absolute conviction.
“Hallelujah” is one of four solo offerings on Santos’ Smule page, along with takes on Anna Kendricks’ Pitch Perfect smash “Cups,” “Let It Go” from Frozen, and “Friend Like Me” from Aladdin. There are also a whole bunch of duets with other Smule users, the vast majority of them from Disney films like The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, and Beauty and the Beast. Santos also joined someone on a duet of Bruno Mars’ “Grenade” for good measure.
Alas, Smule doesn’t have the most “functional” website, so it’s hard to really dig into to Santos’ karaoke oeuvre. But the brief time he spent on the app appears to have brought him a lot of joy. As the man himself put it in the caption accompanying his rendition of the famously depressing “Hallelujah,” “Come have fun guys it’s all about having fun!!!”
Finally, the man speaks some truth!
(A rep for Santos did not respond to Rolling Stone‘s request to comment on the congressman’s karaoke skills.)
