For better or for worse yes, to the point where people from my area even laugh at it, do terrible impressions of me and ask me to repeat stuff. I’m not sure why my accent is so strong but I can see the funny side of it.
Northerners and tourists have a field day with me.
Yeah I always try to imitate the artist as close as possible, including their accent. Other times I sing in my own accent (cockney) just for the laugh, to see what it sounds like.
Whenever I listen to German music though, and it's a song sung in Plattdeutsch, I'll always stubbornly try to sing along in Hochdeutsch because that's the German I learned in school (and mostly forgot anyway).