Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Watch This 8-Year-Old Girl Crush Led Zeppelin's 'Good Times Bad Times'

Eight-year-old Yoyoka Soma's favorite drummer is John Bonham, so for her entry into the 2018 drum contest, she covered Bonham's part on Led Zeppelin's "Good Times Bad Times."

The video, which features Soma playing along to the 1969 hit, earned her a spot in the international competition's final round. She didn't take home the gold, but she did win our hearts.

She absolutely smashes through the song with three foot pedals and polka dot socks putting in bass work. She's even got the facials and head banging down. And the dampening of the cymbal is a detail only a tenured drummer like herself could add.

Soma has been playing drums since the tender age of 2. At 4, she started performing at concerts, and now she's been on over 100 stages. She's a member of her family band, Kaneaiyoyoka, where she contributes keyboard and vocals in addition to drums. She even composes her own lyrics and music.

"I want to be an artist who can do anything: playing all instruments, recording music, mixing the sound and designing the CD album jackets," she said in a statement accompanying her entry.

She's even studying English, knowing that future world-wide tours will take her from Japan to all parts of the globe.

"My dream is to be the best drummer in the world," she said.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Emily Abshire (she/they) is an assistant producer for NPR One. She makes day-to-day programming and production decisions about the content in the NPR One app and collaborates with the newsroom to optimize audio stories for platforms beyond radio. She also hand-curates NPR One's ethical news algorithm that powers the app and is used on voice platforms. Along with other members of the NPR One team, Abshire works to envision fresh news experiences on emerging platforms, such as voice assistants and smart speakers.