A Star Is Born (2018 soundtrack)

In March 2015, Warner Bros. announced that Bradley Cooper was in talks to make his directorial debut with A Star Is Born, the fourth iteration of the 1937 film of the same name. American singer Lady Gaga was officially attached to the film in August 2016, with the studio green-lighting the project to begin production in early 2017. Cooper decided to cast Gaga after seeing her perform Édith Piaf's "La Vie en rose" (1947) at a charity event, which he said "blew [him] away" and led him to envision her as Ally. Gaga had performed the song for years before the film, and a rendition was later also recorded for the film and its soundtrack. Cooper spent two-and-a-half years prepping for the film and determining what kind of musician his character would be. ==Writing and recording==

wrote "Maybe It's Time" for Jackson Maine, which Bradley Cooper described as "the sword" from which much of the character's music emerged. Cooper described the soundtrack "an evolution, like the story." Gaga and Cooper were writing songs for the soundtrack during filming, with each track going through numerous iterations. Jason Isbell wrote "Maybe It's Time" to help define Cooper's character, Jackson. Initially reluctant to participate, he agreed after reading the screenplay, which he described as "honest and human". He sent the song to Cooper via Dave Cobb, a Nashville-based producer he had been working with, who later played it for Gaga and Cooper during a writing session in Los Angeles, where it impressed them and helped set the tone for the soundtrack. Cooper approached Lukas Nelson after seeing him perform at Desert Trip in October 2016 and asked him to work on the film as a music consultant. Nelson said he began "writing songs for the movie, just for the heck of it, and sending them over to the producer, and they started liking them. Then Lady Gaga came by and I met her and we clicked. We became good friends, and we started writing together." Gaga, in turn, provided backing vocals on two tracks on Nelson's self-titled album released in 2017. Nelson and his band, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real, appear in the film as Cooper's backing band. Gaga worked with recurring collaborator Paul "DJ White Shadow" Blair on the soundtrack's more pop-oriented numbers performed by her character Ally, as well as producers such as Nick Monson and Mark Nilan. The songwriting process often continued directly into recording; for example, "Always Remember Us This Way" was recorded immediately after being written, with its songwriters also providing backing vocals during the session. During Gaga's Joanne World Tour (2017–2018), parts of the soundtrack were written and recorded on a mobile studio set up on her tour bus, where she and her collaborators would continue working on songs after her shows. Much of the film's music was created through a hybrid production process that combined live vocals with pre-recorded instrumentation. Gaga insisted on singing live during filming, while the instrumental tracks were typically recorded in advance and played back on set to ensure continuity between takes. To further enhance realism, the production team captured the acoustic characteristics of each venue so the performances would match their onscreen environments. Concert scenes were often filmed in front of large groups of extras, including invited fans, who generally could not hear the backing music during takes; their reactions were recorded separately and incorporated into the final mix. According to engineer Benjamin Rice, the recordings were designed to sound live in the studio—raw, natural, and gritty—while each song was shaped around the story and the contrasting musical identities of Jackson and Ally. For example, Cooper envisioned "Out of Time" as a gradually building song meant to draw Ally toward the stage, mirroring the scene in which she is persuaded to join Jackson in concert. For the soundtrack album, Gaga and Rice reworked the film recordings into album mixes and incorporated dialogue excerpts to retain narrative context. ==Composition==

2017; his solo songs have been described primarily as blues rock. The soundtrack of A Star Is Born has been described as primarily a pop and blues rock album. It also incorporates elements of country, rock, folk rock, electropop, Cooper's solo tracks are in the genre of blues rock. "Out of Time" is a guitar solo that serves as the instrumental lead-in to "Alibi", a track featuring Cooper's "snarly" vocals over piano and screeching guitars. Its lyrics offer a glimpse into Jackson's sordid lifestyle. Critics have compared it to Gaga's pre-The Fame material and the music of Carole King. "Hair Body Face" is a bass-filled pop song with an "urban dance groove", "Before I Cry" is a "soaring", "somber" ballad about the aftermath of an argument. "Shallow" evolves from a country song into a power ballad as Gaga moves into her higher vocal range in the chorus. "Music to My Eyes" is a country-rock love ballad, inspired by the music of the 1950s, that portrays how collaborating on music brings Ally and Jackson closer together. "I Don't Know What Love Is" is a soft rock duet whose lyrics center on the pair's declarations of love. Critics compared its interplay to Gaga's collaborations with Tony Bennett, while noting that her vocal delivery recalls Amy Winehouse. ==Release==

The album's track list and release date were announced on August 30, 2018. Commenting on this format, AllMusic's Erlewine wrote that it recalls Disney soundtrack records from the 1960s or 1970s, which often included dialogue to recreate the film experience. Further bundle editions including both the soundtrack and the film were made available in select markets. Promotion residency, as her guitarist plays the instrumentals of "Shallow" As the songs were considered integral to the film's narrative, Interscope and Warner Bros. decided against releasing the soundtrack in advance, believing that doing so would spoil key scenes for audiences. As a result, the album was issued simultaneously with the film. The only exception was "Shallow", which was released as the lead single on September 27, 2018, after strong demand generated by the trailer and the film's early international premieres. The song was lauded by critics and enjoyed sustained commercial success well beyond its release, spending 45 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 and remaining on multiple European charts for months. In December 2018, Gaga added "Shallow" as the encore to her Las Vegas residency, Enigma. During the show on January 26, 2019, Cooper joined Gaga for the performance. The same year, Gaga sang "Shallow" solo at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards in a glam rock rendition, accompanied on stage by the song's co-writers. Two weeks later, she reunited with Cooper to present it at the 91st Academy Awards. The performance was staged with the pair emerging from the audience and singing side by side at a piano, culminating in a close, shared-microphone finale. It was widely praised by critics, with some calling it the standout musical moment of the ceremony and highlighting the duo's onstage chemistry and intimate delivery. Two further critically well-received singles followed in select territories. "Always Remember Us This Way" was released to radio in Italy and France in January 2019, with "I'll Never Love Again" following on French contemporary hit radio on May 27, 2019. They peaked at numbers 41 and 36 on the US Billboard Hot 100, respectively, and reached the top 20 in several international territories. Music videos for the three singles, as well as for "Look What I Found", were also released, featuring clips from the film. ==Critical reception==

The soundtrack received positive response from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album has an average score of 78, based on 8 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Nick Reilly of NME complimented the album's "emotionally charged songs that feel entirely appropriate for this heartfelt tale of doomed romance", adding that the album is "one of the best Hollywood soundtracks of recent years." Rolling Stone Brittany Spanos wrote that the album's early songs are "almost impenetrably perfect", praising their romantic yet powerful tone and suggesting they "should've been the template" for the rootsy direction Gaga pursued on Joanne. She added that as the soundtrack shifts to Ally's pop career, it delivers a run of catchy, The Fame-style singles that remain "deliciously fun" despite reflecting her artistic compromise. Larry Fitzmaurice of Pitchfork wrote that, at its best, the soundtrack "delivers on the promise of its star-wattage with some of the most affecting and emotionally overwhelming pop songs of the year". He considered the soundtrack's three singles its highlights, described "Maybe It's Time" as having a "quiet radiance", but found Cooper's other songs less distinctive and some of Ally's pop tracks weaker. Fitzmaurice concluded that the soundtrack was ultimately more effective within the context of the film than as a standalone listening experience. Chris DeVille of Stereogum opined that the soundtrack succeeds both as a narrative companion to the film and as a standalone pop record, though he wrote that it "could stand to go off the deep end more often". Katie Atkinson from Billboard picked A Star Is Born as the 21st best release on their ranking of the 50 Best Albums of 2018, saying that "like the best soundtracks, this one truly resonates because it re-transports you to the world of [the film]", adding that the album "leaves you wanting more". James Rettig from Stereogum listed it as one of the Noteworthy Movie Soundtracks From 2018, adding that "As far as massive music blockbusters go, you can't do much better than A Star Is Born, which is sad and entertaining and romantic and ends up being pretty good at all of it." Accolades A Star Is Born won the British Academy Film Awards for Best Film Music and was nominated in the category of Best Soundtrack Album at the 9th Hollywood Music in Media Awards. Julianne Jordan and Julia Michels won in the categories for Outstanding Music Supervision at the same awards. It was nominated for a total of seven Grammy Awards, including two Song of the Year nominations. It won for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media. "Shallow" won the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance award, as well as the Best Song Written for Visual Media category. A year later, "I'll Never Love Again" won in the same category, making A Star Is Born the first movie which gained two wins in this category. "Shallow" received numerous further awards, including an Academy Award, Satellite Award, Critics' Choice Movie Award, and Golden Globe Award. ==Commercial performance==

The A Star is Born soundtrack has sold more than 1.2 million copies worldwide. It was the fourth best-selling album of 2019 globally, and ranked second among female artists, behind Taylor Swift's Lover (3.2 million). Fuelled by the success of the soundtrack, Gaga also ranked as the ninth best-selling artist of 2019 globally, and fourth female overall, behind Swift, Billie Eilish and Ariana Grande. Worldwide, the album went on to sell 3.1 million copies by the end of 2019, and six million equivalent units overall. North America A Star Is Born opened atop the US Billboard 200 with 231,000 album-equivalent units, including 162,000 pure album sales. It had the biggest overall sales week for a soundtrack in over three years, and is Gaga's fifth US number-one album as well as Cooper's first. Besides its pure album sales, A Star Is Born earned 37,000 in stream-equivalent units and 32,000 from track-equivalent units. The soundtrack spent a second week at number one there with 143,000 album-equivalent units (86,000 being pure sales), and became Gaga's second album to top the chart for two consecutive weeks after Born This Way (2011). It then held the top spot for a third week in a row with 109,000 equivalent units (61,000 pure sales), becoming the first soundtrack since High School Musical 2 in 2007 to top the chart for its first three weeks. Additionally, it became Gaga's longest running chart-topping album in the country. A Star Is Born was displaced one week later by Andrea Bocelli's Sì. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified it double platinum for over two million album-equivalent units, while pure sales surpassed one million copies by March 2019. Following the 91st Academy Awards, the soundtrack returned to the top of Billboard 200 for a fourth non-consecutive week with 128,000 album-equivalent units (76,000 pure sales) on the chart dated March 9, becoming Gaga's longest running number-one album in the country and the first soundtrack to do so since Frozen (2013). The soundtrack went on to remain on the chart for 103 weeks. As of August 2019, the soundtrack has sold 1,148,000 copies within the United States, while it has earned 2.7 million equivalent album units in the country, according to Billboards report in September 2020. The soundtrack entered at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart, selling 18,000 equivalent units, earning the top sales and digital song download honors and the seventh highest on-demand streams for the week. It was Gaga's third album to reach the summit in the nation and her first since Born This Way. A Star Is Born held the top position for the next week, with another 12,000 equivalent units and was also the top-selling album. It had an 11% increase in sales during the third week and remained atop the charts, selling close to 14,000 equivalent units. Like in the United States, the soundtrack became Gaga's longest running chart-topping album in Canada. By the year-end, the soundtrack had sold 92,000 copies (155,000 equivalent units) in the country according to Nielsen SoundScan, and was certified Platinum by Music Canada (MC). The Academy Awards boosted the soundtrack up to its tenth week at the top of the charts, selling another 12,000 units. Europe A Star Is Born faced competition in the United Kingdom from Twenty One Pilots' Trench album, with the midweek chart suggesting the latter to emerge as the top album. A Star Is Born pulled ahead at the last moment according to Alan Jones from Music Week, and debuted atop the UK Albums Chart with 31,816 units (including 6,178 from stream-equivalent units). It became Gaga's fourth album to reach number one in the nation and her first since Artpop (2013), as well as Cooper's first entry on the chart. The soundtrack fell to number two the following week behind Jess Glynne's Always In Between, selling 24,732 equivalent units. For the week ending November 1, 2018, the soundtrack moved back atop the chart with 24,982 copies sold (including 6,645 from sales-equivalent streams). "Shallow" also reached the top of the UK Singles Chart that week, giving Gaga and Cooper an Official UK Chart double, this being Gaga's third time to do so. The soundtrack received a 2× Platinum certification from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for selling over 600,000 units in the country. During its eleventh week atop the Irish chart, the soundtrack attained its highest sales tally, helped by the release of the Special Deluxe Edition. In France, the soundtrack sold 8,700 copies and debuted at number seven on the SNEP Albums Chart, before reaching number one 20 weeks later with 9,700 copies sold. It was the 22nd best-selling album of the year in France in 2018. The Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique (SNEP) certified the record Diamond for 500,000 equivalent units and it had sold a total of 200,000 pure copies by May 2019. Two weeks later, the soundtrack peaked at number one, becoming Gaga's third album to reach the top of the Australian chart after The Fame Monster and Born This Way. The soundtrack debuted at number six in the New Zealand Albums Chart, and reached number one in its third week. A Star Is Born became the year's longest running number-one album in Australia at 11 weeks (ranking at number three on the year-end charts) and was certified triple platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for selling over 210,000 units. ==Track listing==

Notes •  – additional vocal production •  – additional production •  – main and additional production •  – vocal production ==Credits and personnel==

Personnel adapted from A Star Is Born soundtrack liner notes and AllMusic. Management • Published by Sony/ATV Songs LLC / SG Songs LLC (BMI) / Happygowrucke / Creative Pulse Music/These Are Pulse Songs (BMI). • All rights administered by These Are Pulse Songs, BIRB Music (ASCAP) / BMG Rights Management (US) LLC • Warner Tamerlane Publishing Corp. / Super LCS Publishing / One Tooth Productions (BMI), Warner-Barham Music LLC (BMI) • Extra administration by Songs of Universal (BMI) / Warner-Olive Music LLC (ASCAP) admin. by Universal Music Corp. (ASCAP) • Recorded at Greek Theater, Shrine Auditorium, Regent Theatre (Los Angeles, California) , EastWest Studios, The Village West (Los Angeles), Saturday Night Live set in NBC Studios, Woodrow Wilson Studios (Hollywood, California), Shangri-La Studios (Malibu, California), Five Star Bar (Los Angeles), The Virgil (Los Angeles), and the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival • Mixed at Electric Lady Studios (New York City) • Mastered at Sterling Sound Studios (New York City) Production • Dae Bennett – engineer • Paul Blair – composer, producer • Bobby Campbell – executive producer, producer • Dave Cobb – producer • Tom Elmhirst – dialogue mixing, mixing • Lisa Einhorn-Gilder – production coordination • Bradley Cooper – composer, primary artist, producer • Bill Gerber – executive producer • Ashley Gutierrez – executive assistant • Natalie Hemby – composer • Darren Higman – executive producer • Jason Isbell – composer • Gena Johnson – engineer • Julianne Jordan – music supervisor • Paul Kennerley – composer • Lady Gaga – additional production, composer, horn arrangements, piano, producer, string arrangements, vocal producer • Brian Lambert – executive in charge of music • Hillary Lindsey – composer • Louiguy – composer • Lori McKenna – composer • Randy Merrill – mastering • Joe Nino-Hernes – lacquer cutting • Kari Miazek – coordination • Nick Monson – additional production, composer, guitar, keyboards, piano, producer, programming, string arrangements, vocals (background) • Amanda Narkis – executive in charge of music • Lukas Nelson – composer, guitar, guitar (acoustic), guitar (electric), producer • Brian Newman – producer, trumpet • Mark Nilan Jr. – additional production, composer, horn arrangements, keyboards, piano, producer, programming, string arrangements • Julia Michaels – composer • Julia Michels – music supervisor • Jon Peters – executive producer • Édith Piaf – composer • Aaron Raitiere – composer • Benjamin Rice – engineer, producer, vocal producer, vocals (background) • Mark Ronson – composer • Anthony Rossomando – composer • Anthony Seyler – executive producer • Ivy Skoff – coordination, string coordinator • Eddie Spear – engineer • JoAnn Tominaga – coordination, string contractor • Justin Tranter – composer • Diane Warren – composer • Andrew Wyatt – composer Music • Brian Allen – bass • Charlie Bisharat – violin • Alberto Bof – keyboards • Jacob Braun – celli • Brockett Parsons – keyboards • Jon Drummond – bass • Andrew Duckles – viola • Alma Fernandez – viola • Daniel Foose – bass • Paul Francis – drums • Grant Garibyan – violin • Gary Grant – trumpet • Lila Hood – violin • Benjamin Jacobson – violin • Chris Johnson – drums • Steve Kortyka – saxophone • Marisa Kuney – violin • Songa Lee – violin • Melvin "Maestro" Lightford – keyboards • Shigeru Logan – viola • Anthony LoGerfo – drums • David Low – celli • Andy Martin – trombone • Corey McCormick – bass • Serena McKinney – violin • Tato Melgar – percussion • Pablo Mendez – violin • Leah Metzler – celli • Joel Peskin – sax (baritone) • Chris Powell – drums • Leroy Powell – pedal steel guitar • Kate Reddish – viola • Tom Scott – contractor, sax (tenor) • Jesse Siebenberg – lap steel guitar • Alex Smith – piano • Tim Stewart – guitar • Ricky Tillo – guitar • Adrienne Woods – celli Additional personnel • Alec Baldwin – featured artist • Rob Bisel – assistant • Bo Bodnar – assistant • Brandon Bost – assistant • Paul Broucek – executive in charge of music • Sam Elliott – featured artist • Rafi Gavron – featured artist • Don Roy King – featured artist • Michael Mancini – featured artist • D.J. Shangela Pierce – featured artist • Anthony Ramos – featured artist • John Rooney – assistant • Gena Rositano – featured artist • Tyler Shields – assistant • Alex Williams – assistant • Matt Wolach – assistant Artwork • Peter Lindbergh – photography • Clay Enos – photography ==Charts==

Weekly charts Year-end charts Decade-end charts ==Certifications and sales==