It’s the movie’s pivotal song, performed by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper.
It’s the anchor of the A Star Is Born trailer, but now it’s out in its entirety, a week ahead of the film itself: Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga’s song “Shallow” — which seems almost certainly headed for a Best Original Song Oscar — hit the Internet today, along with a music video that functions as a supercut for the movie:
In the film, “Shallow” is a fragment of a song that still-undiscovered singer Ally (Gaga) sings to the nearly burnt-out blues-rock star Jackson (Cooper) in a parking lot on a whirlwind night after their first meeting. He’s smitten instantly, and by the end of the evening is pleading with her to come to his show the following night.
She’s reluctant, but she does, showing up backstage with her best friend (played by Hamilton ’s Anthony Ramos). To her shock, Jackson says he’s arranged a song written by a friend, and tries to get her to come out on stage to sing it with him.
She refuses at first. But she gathers her courage, walks to the mic, and picks up the second verse. And just like that, a star is, well, born.
The film is Cooper’s directorial debut and a passion project for him. As it enters the awards season, it seems to be a lock for a number of Oscar nominations — this song chief among them.
For a song to be nominated in the Best Original Song category at the Oscars, it has to be written for the film itself and “important” to the film — and “Shallow,” which effectively launches the film into its rising action, certainly qualifies. And they often have star power behind them; Gaga co-wrote “Shallow” with pop luminaries Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando, and Andrew Wyatt.
But it’s also just incredibly catchy, and the moment it shows up is unforgettable.
Anything could happen by the time Oscar nominations roll around — there is, after all, still a Mary Poppins movie coming, with music by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, the songwriting team behind Hairspray, Smash, the South Park movie, and more. But it seems at minimum fair to guess that “Shallow” is well on its way to joining Coco ’s “Remember Me,” La Land ’s “City of Stars,” Frozen ’s “Let It Go,” and other memorable movie songs in the Oscar pantheon.
In the meantime, it’s available on all digital platforms, and the full soundtrack is set to drop on October 5, the same day as the film .
