Daniel Radcliffe showed off his secret talent on 'The Tonight Show' and no one saw it coming
'Harry Potter' franchise star Daniel Radcliffe broke past his innocent image and shocked fans with one secret talent while appearing on 'The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon' in 2014. Radcliffe showed off his immaculate vocabulary skills by rapping hip hop duo Blackalicious' 1999 hit 'Alphabet Aerobics' for the live audience. "Artificial amateurs, aren't at all amazing. Analytically, I assault and animate things. Broken barriers bounded by the bomb beat. Buildings are broken I'm bombarding. Casually create catastrophes and casualties. Canceling cats, got their canopies collapsing," he crooned the lyrics while Fallon held alphabetical placards in the background
According to The Things, the 'December Boys' star gushed about being a die-hard Eminem fan, "Initially, I got into Eminem and I was obsessed. I think I was the first kid in my class to learn all the words to The Real Slim Shady," he confessed. In 2019, he told Eminem News that he became interested in the rap scene because of Slim Shady's intelligent lyrics. "The thing that excites me about music 99% of the time is lyrics. And Eminem particularly. I just find him amazing. When you analyze some of the lines and the lyrics. Sometimes he will fit two references of other stuff amazing rhyming, and a pun. He’ll do it in three lines but it takes you sometimes so long to get it."
Fans grew equally excited about his live performance on the show and praised his rapping skills, the YouTube video has since garnered around 121 million hits. "This video made me memorize this song just to have a special skill to show off," a fan commented. "Daniel talking normally: British Daniel when he raps: American," another internet user complimented his change in accent. "If Harry Potter was able to spit spells as quickly as Daniel Radcliffe raps, Lord Voldemort would have been dead on the goblet of fire," a viewer wrote in jest. "Up until now I love Jimmy Fallon's reaction to the rapping.... he was vibing," a fan praised the late-night host.
Similarly, in 2010 Radcliffe mesmerized the audience by singing with his rendition of Tom Lehrer's 'The Elements' while appearing on 'The Graham Norton Show'. Calling the hit single his go-to party song he said, "Tom Lehre in my opinion is the cleverest and funniest man of the 20th century and I just he's kind of my hero and he wrote a song called The Elements cuz he was a scientist and it's the name of every element in the periodic table um and that's that's my party piece."
In 2024 Radcliffe serenaded with his version of Franklin Shepard Inc.'s 'Merrily We Roll Along', as per Entertainment Weekly, he produced a musical video with animated lyrics of the song. It also showcases 'The Lost City' actor in a studio set-up while recording the Broadway version of the song. He currently starred in the stage version of George Furth's play which first premiered on Broadway in 1981, but it was unsuccessful back then. Radcliffe's version of the play ran successfully at the Hudson Theater from July 7 last year.