State Champ Radio soundtrack
Nick Cave and Warren Ellis have been making beautifully morose music together for more than three decades. In addition to their longtime collaboration in Cave’s Bad Seeds band, the pair have also teamed up for a more than a dozen soundtrack score albums, including their new score for the Amy Winehouse biopic, Back to Black.
In keeping with their eternally bleak, theatrical vibe, the pair released their homage to late British R&B singer Winehouse on Thursday (April 11), “Song for Amy.” Like much of the score they wrote for the film — which opened in the U.K. on Friday (April 12) — the tribute track leans into a dramatic, emotional vibe, accented by a haunting flute and piano riff and Cave’s signature pleading vocals.
“You say it’s time/ For us to call it a day/ I will love you anyway/ You know that I don’t even care what they say/ I’ll still love you anyway, baby,” Cave sings emotionally as strings swell up and he adds the gut-punch lines, “Love gives everything/ Just to take it away/ And I’d give you anything for you to stay.” The somber 12-track score features 10 instrumental cues (with titles such as “Tattoo Parlour,” “At the Taxi,” “Snooker Hall” and “Soho To Glastonbury”) as well as the 3:19 “Song for Amy” and a 2:12 instrumental reprise of that track.
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“Nick and Warren were the only musicians in my mind to score Back to Black,” director said Sam Taylor-Johnson said in an earlier statement. “Over the years I’ve listened to everything they’ve composed and longed to realize the dream of working together. Their sensibility as well as understanding of this story has led to a profoundly deep and moving film score.”
Back to Black: Songs From the Original Motion Picture is due out on May 17 on UMR/Island Records, the same day the film opens in the U.S. The collection features classics from Thelonious Monk, The Specials, Little Anthony & the Imperials, The Shangri-Las, Billie Holiday, Donny Hathaway, Tony Bennett, Willie Nelson, Minnie Ripperton and others, as well as a handful of Winehouse’s most beloved songs, including “Rehab,” “Tears Dry on Their Own,” “Me & Mr. Jones,” “Back to Black,” “Fuck Me Pumps” and “Song For Amy.”
The movie‘s cast includes star Marisa Abela (Industry), as well as Eddie Marsan (Ray Donovan) as father Mitch Winehouse and Jack O’Connell (Godless) as troubled husband Blake Fielder-Civil. Winehouse died in 2011 at 27 of an accidental alcohol overdose after years of substance use struggles.
Listen to “Song For Amy” below.
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Capitán Avispa is already here, or at least flying to a nearby cinema. In the meantime, you can listen to the soundtrack created by Juan Luis Guerra for his first animated movie.
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As he revealed to Billboard Español in December, the musician, composer, singer and producer released Captain Wasp Original Motion Soundtrack on Tuesday (April 5). With 41 original tracks composed and arranged by the Dominican maestro, the collection includes new versions of his hits “La Gallera,” “Bachata Rosa,” “Las Avispas” and “Bachata en Fukuoka,” as well as instrumental themes and songs especially created for the project.
“That’s how the epic themes of Capitán Avispa, who is the hero of our movie, and Jacques Puasón, his archenemy, were born,” Guerra tells Billboard Español. “These were composed full orchestra — that is, trumpets, trombones, french horns, violins, piano and percussion — and each one of them reflects their character.”
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“We worked for about five and a half years on the music of this film, since we made the first demo in 2019,” he adds.
The main song of the soundtrack is “Mi Amor,” a romantic song performed by Luis Fonsi, who voices Capitán Avispa in the film, and Joy Huerta (from Jesse & Joy), who plays his love interest, princess Honey Bee. “It’s a beautiful song that speaks of love that covers all faults, wonderfully performed by my two favorite voices of today,” Guerra explains.
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Directed by his son, Jean Gabriel Guerra, and Jonathan Meléndez, the story of Capitán Avispa was created by Juan Luis, who recruited other friends and colleagues to give life to the different characters: Juanes provides the voice of Sargento Picadura, and the Colombian rocker’s wife, actress Karen Martínez, plays Ximena Colmena. Dominican actor José Guillermo Cortinez lends his voice to the villain Jacques Puasón, and Dominican actress Amelia Vega — Miss Universe 2003, as well as Guerra’s niece — voices Polibya Néctar.
Among the track stand-outs are “El Baile de los Zánganos”, “a very cheerful and fun bachata son,” says Guerra, as well as a new version of “Señorita” and another of “Las Avispas” set to a reggae rhythm. The artist also highlights “Vuelo Sobre Avispatrópolis” as “a voice and guitar tune to the rhythm of 6 x 4, but with a modern twist, in which we added marimba, xylophones and strings”.
The musical production of Captain Wasp Original Motion Soundtrack was overseen by Guerra and Janina Rosado. “All this work was recorded in Santo Domingo by Dominican musicians,” says the multiple Grammy and Latin Grammy award winner, proudly. Allan Lescchorn and Luis Mansilla were in charge of recording and mixing, and the mastering was done by Adam Ayan at Ayan Mastering in the U.S.
Capitán Avispa had its premiere on Monday (April 1) in Santo Domingo with the presence of many of the participating artists, before opening in theaters in the Dominican Republic on Thursday (April 4). In the coming weeks, it will reach more than 34 countries under international distribution of Caribbean Films Distributions.
Listen to the Capitán Avispa soundtrack and check the confirmed premiere dates in the United States, Latin America, the Caribbean and beyond below.
Release dates:
April 4: Dominican Republic Bolivia Abril 11: Puerto RicoUnited StatesArubaAntiguaCuracaoSt. CroixSt. KittsSt. MaartenSt. Thomas
April 18: Mexico ArgentinaEcuadorParaguayUruguay April 21:Canadá April 25:Colombia May 2:Antigua St. LuciaGuyanaTrinidad May 30:Costa Rica PanamaGuatemalaHondurasNicaraguaEl SalvadorBelice June 7: Spain
July 11:VenezuelaBrasilPeru August 8:Chile According to a press release, more dates will be announced soon.
The second installment of director Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon movie series will be accompanied by a five-track “inspired by” EP. Rebel Moon – Songs of the Rebellion is due out on April 5, with tracks from Jessie Reyez, Tainy, Tokischa, TOKiMONSTA, aespa, Black Coffee and Kordhell.
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The album will drop just before the April 19 Netflix release of Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver, the sequel to the Justice League director’s 2023 futuristic space drama Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire.
“After being given the chance to watch the movie before it was out, it was very easy to connect the dots backwards and see myself in Kora” Reyez said in a statement in reference to the series’ main character, Kora/Arthelais, who leads fighters from across the galaxy in a battle against the oppressive Motherworld. “Personally, there’s not a lot of things I’m afraid of, but being absolutely vulnerable in love is definitely one of them. Kora has repeatedly been denied emotional and physical equanimity throughout her life, and when she is denied it again by [Charlie Hunnam’s character] Kai, she has yet another brick to add to her walls, and grows another layer on her thick skin. It was natural to resonate with that.”
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All of the songs on the EP are originals the artists wrote specifically for the film according to the release, with each song paired to a lead character that inspired it. “The artists’ rebellious personal touches on each single create a compelling sonic journey throughout the EP, curated to the film’s characters and emotions of strength, resilience, and empowerment,” the release said. “The collection of songs also features various genres representing different cultures from around the world. And similar to the warriors in Rebel Moon, artists also have to fight for their families, their communities, a dignified future, and their art.”
Check out the track list — including which character inspired each song — below.
“Child of Fire” – Jessie Reyez (inspired by Kora –protagonist played by Sofia Boutella)
“Jalo!” – Tokischa + Tainy (inspired by The Bloodaxes — Darrian and Devra Bloodaxe — played by Ray Fisher and Cleopatra Coleman)
“Die Trying” – aespa + TOKiMONSTA (inspired by Nemesis — played by Doona Bae)
“Ode to Ancestors” (feat. Djimon Hounsou) – Black Coffee (inspired by General Titus — played by Hounsou)
“Revolution” – Kordhell (inspired by Jimmy — voiced by Anthony Hopkins)
Just three weeks after first teasing Paramore‘s rollicking cover of Talking Heads‘ “Burning Down the House,” the band’s rendition is finally here.
On Wednesday (Jan. 31), A24 Music officially announced Everyone’s Getting Involved: A Tribute to Stop Making Sense — a tribute album in commemoration of the 40-year anniversary of Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense concert film and accompanying soundtrack.
The tribute album’s track list mirrors that of the original LP, with fresh, new takes on the 16 electrifying tracks from a genre-spanning array of artists. The full list of artists featured on the soundtrack includes Paramore, Miley Cyrus, Lorde, The National, Teezo Touchdown, Kevin Abstract, Jean Dawson, girl in red, BADBADNOTGOOD, Blondshell, The Cavemen., Chicano Batman, Money Mark, DJ Tunez, El Mató a un Policía Motorizado, The Linda Lindas and Toro y Moi.
A24 Music’s new compilation specifically celebrates the recent re-release of Stop Making Sense to theaters nationwide. Originally filmed and released in 1984, the Jonathan Demme-helmed concert film chronicles four nights of performances on the band’s 1983 tour in support of their Speaking in Tongues album, which reached No. 15 on the Billboard 200 that year. Back in 1984, the original Stop Making Sense soundtrack hit No. 41 on the Billboard 200; the set has since spent 119 weeks on the ranking, more than any other Talking Heads title.
Stop Making Sense returned to theaters this January in a restored 4K print. A24 acquired the worldwide rights to the film, and under their guidance, the Stop Making Sense re-release set an IMAX record for highest-grossing live event and eclipsed the gross of the film’s original 10-month U.S. theatrical run in weeks. On Jan. 27, A24 launched a new theatrical residency for the film, hosting monthly screenings in major cities — including Chicago, London and New York — as the concert doc approaches the 40-year anniversary of its original premiere (April 24).
Talking Heads have earned eight career entries on the Billboard Hot 100, including their sole top 10 hit, 1983’s “Burning the House Down” (No. 9). On the Billboard 200, the band’s 12 career entries include 1983’s Speaking in Tongues (No. 15), 1985’s Little Creatures (No. 20) and 1988’s Naked (No. 19).
Check out Paramore’s blazing “Burning the House Down” cover — and a sneak peek at their video — below.
Just two days after The Color Purple broke a slew of records upon its Christmas Day debut, Usher and H.E.R. have released the steamy new music video for “Risk It All,” their acclaimed collaboration off The Color Purple (Music From and Inspired By).
With Usher sporting nothing but a pair of skin-tight black boxer briefs, the “Good Good” singer effortlessly reminds us of his sex symbol status as H.E.R. matches his energy and equally embraces her sensuality on screen while wearing a low-cut black corset paired with black shorts. The two Grammy winners lip sync to their respective verses as they join background dancers performing modern dance choreography set to the somber, piano-backed ballad. “Sometimes it’s tragic, so problematic / People are cryin’ for it, people are dyin’ for it / Always the reason, we still believe it / Somethin’ that leaves us hurtin’ is worth it,” they croon.
Co-written and produced by H.E.R. — who also stars in the blockbuster movie musical — and Oscar and Grammy winner Jimmy Napes, “Risk It All” embodies the narratives of love, survival, determination and liberation that course through The Color Purple. The song appears on The Color Purple (Music From and Inspired By), which also includes new music from the likes of Fantasia, Halle Bailey, Megan Thee Stallion, Mary J. Blige, Jennifer Hudson, Coco Jones, Alicia Keys, Missy Elliott, Black Thought, October London, Shenseea, Mary Mary, Jorja Smith, Keyshia Cole and more.
The Color Purple opened in theatres on Dec. 25, 2023. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the movie — which is a film adaptation of the 2005 Tony-winning Broadway musical based on the 1985 Steven Spielberg-helmed film and Alice Walker’s 1982 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel — outpaced expectations and pulled in over $18 million in North America alone. That marks the largest Christmas Day opening for a film since Sherlock Holmes in 2009, as well as the second-largest Christmas Day opening of all time.
Starting on Dec. 27 at 11:00 a.m. ET/8:00 a.m. PT, the Dave Meyers-directed video will premiere on MTV and air every hour on MTVU, MTV Live & MTV Biggest Pop. “Risk It All” will also be included on Usher’s Coming Home, his forthcoming ninth studio album, which is set to arrive the same day he graces the Super Bowl Halftime stage (Feb. 11).
Watch the racy new “Risk It All” music video above.
Welcome to Good Burger, home of the Good Burger — again! Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell are reprising their roles as Dexter Reed and Ed for Good Burger 2, which is streaming exclusively on Paramount+ on Wednesday (Nov. 22), and Billboard is exclusively serving up the star-studded soundtrack track list. The full album is out […]
Olivia Rodrigo is musically joining the Hunger Games universe. The pop superstar announced on Wednesday (Nov. 1) that she wrote a song called “Can’t Catch Me Now” for the upcoming The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (Music From & Inspired By) soundtrack. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest […]
On July 19, two days before Barbie and its soundtrack would arrive, over 150 independent record stores across the country were celebrating early with listening sessions of the star-studded Barbie: The Album.
“We’ve actually never done [that] for a soundtrack release before,” says Kevin Weaver, Atlantic Records’ West Coast president and the album’s co-producer (alongside Mark Ronson and Atlantic’s executive vp/co-head of pop/rock A&R, Brandon Davis). Meanwhile, the label’s international teams were making sure that retailers around the world were involved, too, resulting in an impressive global reach.
“This is the largest scale activation we’ve ever done for something like this,” continues Weaver. “And the feedback that I got from our teams internally was that this was the most successful activation of this nature that we’ve ever done.”
Barbie: The Album debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, boasting the largest sales week on vinyl for a theatrical film soundtrack (33,000) since Luminate began electronically tracking music sales in 1991. Overall, the album opened with the biggest week (by units earned) for a theatrical film soundtrack in over four years. (The last soundtrack to score a bigger week was Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s A Star Is Born).
Weaver says he and his team thought about their vinyl strategy on day one of planning for the soundtrack. “We had identified the value and the importance of being able to deliver the music with enough time to be able to manufacture the vinyl and get it out into the world for street date. It was [one] of the most critical aspects of what we were doing.”
Nashville Record Pressing (NRP) began pressing the album in May (the plant says a 10-week lead time is typical), ensuring the physical copies would be ready by the album’s release date. The plant manufactured a total of seven variants, with five currently being offered on the soundtrack’s official web store: hot pink, sky blue, milky clear (Amazon exclusive), cotton candy (Barnes & Noble exclusive) and neon pink (Urban Outfitters exclusive). In all, the first run was estimated at 100,000. “That’s a good sized run for an [original soundtrack], and does indicate strong demand for the title,” says Drake Coker, CEO of NRP, which is owned by GZ Media. “Which makes sense, given the strength of the film.”
Given the months-long lead time, Weaver admits he and his team were “really nervous” about the music leaking. And while the label has a long track record of successful soundtrack releases, Barbie was its own beast. “We have songs from the biggest superstars in the world,” he says, noting a handful of whom were kept a secret until the last minute.
“Historically on these kind of projects – I’ve done The Greatest Showman, Suicide Squad, Fast and Furious – we’ve been able to get a physical product on day and date. Historically, that’s been a CD. Usually, we follow with the vinyl and it’s an afterthought,” says Weaver. “Here we just knew the critical importance of that not being the case.” While Barbie: The Album is also available on CD and cassette, he and his team identified early on that vinyl would be a key format for Barbie’s biggest fans.
“We knew that the core demo was ferociously out there buying up whatever merch and product they could get their hands on, and we were able to work very closely with Mattel to really understand their core consumer,” says Weaver. “It just felt like it was going to be so culturally relevant that the vinyl was going to be a collector’s item as much as an audio listening experience.”
As such, various versions kept coming — and might still. On Friday (July 21), the release date for both the film and soundtrack, an expanded version of the album also arrived: Barbie The Album (Best Weekend Ever Edition). It featured two bonus tracks, including Ryan Gosling’s cover of “Push” by Matchbox Twenty (which Gosling sings in the film) and a cover of the Indigo Girls’ “Closer To Fine” — which also plays an integral role in the movie — performed by Brandi Carlile and her wife, Catherine Carlile. Weaver says those two songs have been added to “various configurations of the physical product.”
Fans will also notice “Barbie Dreams” by FIFTY FIFTY featuring Kaliii is missing from the original pressing of the soundtrack. That, along with “Choose Your Fighter” by Ava Max (which appears on the hot prink variant) has since been added to a limited edition repress of the sky blue vinyl. It’s currently available for pre-order, with a ship date of Sept. 22.
“We tried to keep feeding what would be available on the physical side,” says Weaver. “There are definitely overarching conversations between myself and my creative partners — [director] Greta Gerwig and Mark Ronson and filmmakers and the studio — about what are ways in which we can continue to support the music brands here and the appetite within.” An exclusive Record Store Day release isn’t out of the question, with Weaver promising “cool new iterations” ahead. (Weaver says the coolest of all is the custom version called Kevin the Album, made with exclusive cover art in honor of his birthday.)
While it seems the Barbie hype won’t die down anytime soon, Weaver is allowing himself a moment to look back on what he and his team pulled off. “Having the vinyl and being able to deliver it to the consumer the way that we did was one of the funnest aspects of the whole project,” he says. “It’s something that I’m really proud of and something that I’m really glad we were able to figure out how to accomplish.”
It’s officially time to immerse yourself in Barbie World! Greta Gerwig’s long-awaited Barbie film has finally hit theaters on Friday (July 21), and along with the movie release came the official soundtrack. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Executive produced by Academy Award-winning songwriter and producer Mark […]
Just before the restaurant opens in Season 2 of FX’s hit show The Bear, chef de cuisine Sydney Adamu releases nine episodes of built-up tension by declaring, “Let it rip!” – and AC/DC‘s “If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It)” explodes into the foreground. For executive producer Josh Senior, securing the song promised some metaphorical bloodshed of its own — but the process turned out to be far easier than expected.
“Everybody I’ve ever talked to about licensing music always told me AC/DC was hard to get, hard to pay for, hard to contact, hard to deal with. And we knew we wanted that song,” he says. “They ended up being amazing and awesome. But the hype was intimidating.”
The Bear is known for its musical needle drops. Rather than relying on music composed for the series, the show uses mostly familiar rock and pop songs to illustrate characters, moods and relationships. That gives it a sort of instant familiarity — but also makes the music-licensing process more complicated. Senior says most of the memorable tracks used on Season 2, such as R.E.M.‘s “Strange Currencies,” Lindsey Buckingham‘s “Holiday Road” and Liz Phair‘s “Supernova,” were easy to clear. But Senior, creator-executive producer Christopher Storer and producer Tyson Bidner, who do not maintain a separate budget for licensing songs (as is the case with most shows), had to “press every penny into place,” especially in the frantic last few weeks of production, he says.
In the end, they were able to license every song they wanted, from the season-opening Bruce Hornsby & The Range track “The Show Goes On” to Taylor Swift‘s “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)” — with one crucial exception, as Senior says, in a phone interview from New Jersey that covers some of the songs used in Season 2.
What was the most difficult song to clear?
An example I haven’t spoken about is the BoDeans song “Still the Night” — not a typical Christmas song. We thought it fit really well for the story we were trying to develop. It turns out that “Still the Night” has quite a few writers on it. I couldn’t find [drummer and co-writer] Guy Hoffman to save my life. We took time to do that, though. If you have a year, you probably can do anything; you have six months, you can probably do most things. Our entire show life-cycle is about three and a half months, from the first day of prep to the thing going on TV. Maybe four. So everything’s an emergency. You get a countdown clock in the back of your head. The theme of the show really does come through to the way the show’s made. That was one that came down to the wire, but we ended up working it out.
For the “Fishes” episode, you used 17 songs, many of them holiday-related. Did you avoid the Christmas classics and use lesser-known tracks for creative reasons, or to save money, or both?
That episode was one of the last episodes for us to lock and finish. Working with our producer Tyson Bidner to press every penny into place was a big part of those last few weeks. We preemptively made three swaps in [that] episode to songs we didn’t think were possible, but either we had already licensed from that record label, or we had worked with that artist and we felt they were more attainable. We were able to get everything we wanted.
Did it help with Season 2 permissions that the show was already established and had a widely viewed first season?
There’s an argument you can make now. For Season 1, we were able to look at the data carefully and closely and see the lift in artists whose music we licensed and their numbers, streams, record sales, ticket sales. A lot of them saw significant growth. This time around, we were able to not just beg and plead but use metrics and data: “Hey, look, there’s a 300% lift on ‘Strange Currencies’ after we put it in the trailer for the show. This is the type of thing we could do if you work with us.”
You used multiple versions of “Strange Currencies” prominently throughout the season. What were the R.E.M. people like to work with?
We had worked with R.E.M. in Season 1. We got to meet them through their management and we were able to point to things that worked out well in the past in terms of numbers. They liked what we did. We viewed “Strange Currencies” like a theme for the entire season, and each of our characters are dealing with loss of love or the acceptance of love, particularly in the Carmy and Claire storyline. We think it represents something potentially beautiful and hopeful and mellow. When we contrast that with Christmas dinner at the Berzattos [in a stormy episode six], it’s clear that Carmy isn’t ready for that yet. The R.E.M. team was kind enough to allow us to use the original, the incredible Scott Litt remix and an unreleased demo.
Was Taylor Swift’s “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)” difficult to license, for the scene of Richie triumphantly singing the song in the car?
No. A lot of people ask that question and I wonder why they’re asking. Her team was like, “Great. This is cool. How much money do you have? You have that much money? Let’s go.” She was exceedingly generous and cool with one of our actors singing along to the song. Those are things that sometimes people just say no to, and that was probably one of the easiest songs to clear.
Any songs you wanted but weren’t able to get?
I don’t want to answer that question right now, because I think I’m going to get those songs next season. I’m sorry!
What about other stories you can share about journeying through the music business to use a song?
In the third episode, there’s a Stevie Wonder demo that we were chasing for a while that we feel like we got close to, but we weren’t able to fully paper. We had conceived a scene around that song. That episode has two big montages in it. One was originally set to a Stevie Wonder song that was perfect, that Ayo [Edebiri, who plays Sydney] had picked. It’s her episode, we felt really strongly about honoring her wishes to include that music — and we weren’t able to get it. We ended up rejiggering a few things and restructuring the episode ever so slightly and pulling two different songs in — “Future Perfect” from The Durutti Column and “Make You Happy” by Tommy McGee. It ended up working really well.
Why couldn’t you get the Wonder song? And can you name it?
I won’t name the song, but there were just some ambiguous rights about the master side. It was a demo that wasn’t released on much — just a B-side of a record.
Do you ever use covers if you can’t get the rights to an original?
We just try and pick the music that we like. You’ll see a lot of live versions — a live Otis Redding song, a live Wilco song, a live Neil Finn song, a live Van Morrison song. You’ll find obscure tracks from Italian artists in the sixth episode.
It can’t hurt that those live versions are cheaper to license than the versions we all know, right?
One hundred percent. And they are different enough for you to think about them a little. There’s the music you hear in Walgreens and CVS. While we were making the show, I heard “Love Story” by Taylor Swift everywhere I went. It was following me around. But her version, I wasn’t hearing everywhere. Being able to use that was just such a nice little nuance.
