James Hill Plays Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” on the Ukulele: Watch One Musician Become a Complete Band

James Hill, an award-win­ning ukulele play­er and song­writer from Cana­da, has been called a “ukulele wun­derkind,” and an artist who “gives the ukulele its dig­ni­ty back with­out ever tak­ing him­self too seri­ous­ly.” The video above puts Hill’s lighter side and wun­derkind tal­ents on full dis­play.

Per­form­ing live for a crowd in Cal­i­for­nia, Hill and his “imag­i­nary band” per­form an enchant­i­ng ver­sion of Michael Jack­son’s “Bil­lie Jean.” With just a uke, Hill plays the bass line, per­cus­sion, and piano parts. Put it all togeth­er, and you have a fas­ci­nat­ing one-man ukulele per­for­mance. But wait until you see what he can do with a uke, chop­sticks and comb…

If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newslet­ter, please find it here. Or fol­low our posts on Threads, Face­book, BlueSky or Mastodon.

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!

Relat­ed Con­tent:

George Har­ri­son Explains Why Every­one Should Play the Ukulele

19-Year-Old Russ­ian Gui­tarist Plays an Inge­nious Cov­er of Michael Jackson’s “Bil­lie Jean”

A One-Man Pink Floyd Band Cre­ates Note-Per­fect Cov­ers of “Echoes,” “Com­fort­ably Numb,” “Moth­er” & Oth­er Clas­sics: Watch 19-Year-Old Wun­derkind Ewan Cun­ning­ham in Action