Cool Cat

A bold Queen cover, "Cool Cat" appears directly on When I Hear Your Name as the album's second track. Where most R&B artists draw from the Motown catalog or hip-hop for their covers, Maeta deliberately chose a 1982 pop-funk song written by Freddie Mercury and David Bowie — a choice that speaks volumes about her artistic vision.

Maeta transposes the original into a contemporary R&B setting without betraying its essence. The funky lightness of the original gives way to a more muted production, but the melody and the playful spirit of the song are preserved. The result is an unexpected fusion that works remarkably well, as if the song had always been meant to be reinterpreted in this register.

This cover choice demonstrates Maeta's eclecticism and her refusal to be confined to the obvious references of the R&B genre. By including "Cool Cat" on a studio album rather than a throwaway social-media cover, she asserts that her influences cross generational and stylistic lines — from Freddie Mercury to Beyoncé, it all feeds her art.