Evita (soundtrack)

In 1996, Madonna starred in the film Evita, playing the role of Eva Perón, the Spiritual Leader of the Nation of Argentina. For a long time, Madonna had desired to play Eva and even wrote a letter to director Alan Parker, explaining how she would be perfect for the part. Madonna had already enlisted the help of composers Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, who had originally created the musical Evita. Rice believed that the singer would suit in the title role since she could "act beautifully through music". She taught Madonna how to sing using her diaphragm rather than just her throat, enabling her to project her voice in a more cohesive manner. Madonna was thrilled to find the newly discovered nuances in her voice and would go home every night, practicing by telephoning her friends and singing to them. Parker finished writing the script for the film by May 1995. He then visited Lloyd Webber's home in France, and tried to bring him and Rice together for working on the film; the duo had not worked with each other for years after the musical Cricket (1986). While drafting the script, Parker had re-written the last act, removing the repetitive content of the original play. This resulted in Rice and Lloyd Webber composing new music, including the new song "You Must Love Me". Parker knew that the pre-recorded playback would be the main backbone for the filming, hence he was wary about the decisions he had to make in the recording studio. He pored over the script and the music, anticipating the questions he expected the actors to ask during filming. == Recording sessions ==

Recording sessions began in September 1995, and took place at the CTS Studios in London, with Madonna and co-actors Antonio Banderas and Jonathan Pryce. Engineer David Reitzas performed the mixing of the track at Larrabee North Studios, utilizing their Solid State Logic 9000 J series consoles for the mix. For the first day's sessions, music supervisor David Caddick suggested to record "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" with the 84 piece orchestra backing Madonna's vocals. However, Lloyd Webber was critical of the recording arrangements done in the studio. Conductor John Mauceri remembered another challenge the production faced was adapting the stage numbers into a feature film; "On film, it's different than being on stage because the person on the screen in front of you is never farther than someone on the pillow in bed next to you". However, more trouble arose as Madonna was not comfortable with laying down a "guide vocal" simultaneously with an 84 piece orchestra inside the studio. Also, unlike her previous soundtrack releases, she had little to no control over the project; "I'm used to writing my own songs and I go into a studio, choose the musicians and say what sounds good or doesn't ... To work on 46 songs with everyone involved and not have a big say was a big adjustment", she recalled. An emergency meeting was held between Parker, Lloyd Webber and Madonna where it was decided that the singer would record her part at Whitfield Street, a contemporary studio, while the orchestration would take place somewhere else. She also had alternate days off from the recording to save and strengthen her voice. Recording the soundtrack was a slow process and took almost four months before it was completed. But Parker noticed at the end of recording that they did not have the new song in place. Recalling in his The Making of Evita essay: Finally, while I was visiting Andrew at his country estate in Berkshire to play him the tracks we had recorded, he suddenly sat down at the piano and played the most beautiful melody, which he suggested could be our new song. Needless to say, I grabbed it. However, we still needed lyrics and Tim dutifully began to put words to the music. The vast majority of the original Evita score had been done this way: music first, lyrics afterwards. After many weeks of nail biting, Tim was finally cajoled into writing the lyrics that now accompany the music to "You Must Love Me". == Music and lyrical interpretation ==

The soundtrack is generally considered a Madonna album since her vocals are featured on most of the songs. The central backbone and theme of the soundtrack is "Don't Cry for Me Argentina", and through the songs it tells the story of Eva's beginnings, her rise to fame, political career and gradually her death. Here the lyrics talk about warning Eva from strangers in the big city. The sound of train horns, Latin percussion, drums, and light guitars introduce "Buenos Aires", talking about Eva finally arriving in the city. The melody finds Madonna singing in a higher range, and the song has a heavy composition in the middle with guitar, trumpets and discordant music. "Another Suitcase in Another Hall" begins with soft strummed guitar in broken chords, and consists of strings and acoustic guitar played in a subdued manner. Madonna sings about Eva moving from one home to another, portraying an image—the suitcase in the hall—"to express the nomadic nature of modern civilization". Military drum beats and a brass section start off "Peron's Latest Flame", where Banderas sings loudly about the general population disapproving of Eva. In the middle of a male backing chorus, Madonna sings her lines, accompanied by stereo tom-tom drum and synth sounds. "High Flying, Adored" has an Elton John style according to Rooksby, who described the lyrics as narcissistic and a parallel with Madonna's life. "RainBow High" features instrumentation from drums, guitars, horns and strings, with the lyrics being about Eva's materialistic needs. With "Waltz for Eva and Che", the soundtrack's atmosphere becomes tense, as Banderas and Madonna sing on top of bass and timpani. The bittersweet song "You Must Love Me" starts with orchestra and piano. Lyrically it talks about Eva's discovery that her husband Juan had actually loved her all along, not merely seeing her as a political prop. The final track, "Lament", finds Madonna singing in a whispered tone, about Eva looking back at her life on her deathbed. Accompanied by classical guitar and harp, Banderas also sings over Eva's grave, and the track gradually fades out as an anti-climax. == Release and promotion ==

The soundtrack was released in the United States on November 12, 1996, almost two weeks before the release of the film. It was already in huge demand prior to its release, according to Tim Devin, manager of Tower Records. "People are seriously clamouring for it. We are getting more inquiries about this record than anything else right now," Devin explained to Billboards Larry Flick. An Evita EP, containing remixed versions of "Buenos Aires", "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" and "Another Suitcase in Another Hall", was supposed to be released but was cancelled. Singles " on the Sticky & Sweet Tour (2008–09). It went on to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song. "You Must Love Me" was released as the soundtrack's lead single on October 21, 1996. It was written specifically for the film with the hopes of obtaining an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song. According to Lloyd Webber, the song's main inspiration was to showcase Eva's emotional state at the time as well as her relationship with Juan. The song garnered positive responses from music critics, many of them highlighting Madonna's enhanced singing ability. It went on to win the Golden Globe and the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1997. It was also a moderate commercial success, becoming a top-ten hit in some countries including Finland and the United Kingdom, while reaching the top-twenty in the United States, where it achieved a gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" was released as the second single from the album on December 16, 1996. A separate version called the "Miami Mix", which included re-recorded vocals in English and Spanish and an Argentinean bandoneon in the song's intro, was promoted to radio. and the song reached the top-ten of the charts a number of nations, including the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, and received gold certifications from five of them. "Another Suitcase in Another Hall" was the third and final single released on March 18, 1997. Upon its release, the song reached the top ten of the charts in the United Kingdom. The track "Buenos Aires" received remix treatment from DJ duo Pablo Flores-Javier Garza. Warner Bros. was initially reluctant to release the remixes, but decided to finally release it to coincide with the home video release of Evita the film. Flores and Garza kept the Latin composition of the track, while "flattening" the groove to make it suitable for playing in dance floors. They also added live percussion and keyboard lines to the remix. Larry Flick from Billboard commented that "Buenos Aires" displayed Madonna's "increased comfort and dexterity as a stylist". Following its promotional release in October 1997, "Buenos Aires" peaked at number three on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart. == Critical reception ==

Evita has received generally mixed reviews from music critics. The staff of Music Week called the soundtrack a "well-arranged album". Jim Farber from Entertainment Weekly praised Madonna's performance on the album, writing: "Aided by impeccable orchestrations (and some coaching), her vocals are years ahead of anything she'd sung before." Authors Allen Metz and Carol Benson wrote in their book The Madonna Companion that the soundtrack gave Madonna "some of the post-disco queen/sex machine credibility she so desperately crave[d]". Spins Annie Zaleski noted that the soundtrack demonstrated Madonna's "astronomical growth as a vocalist ...Evita marked the start of Madonna's Serious Phase, one where she balanced youthful coquettish-ness with a more mature, introspective outlook". In her review of the film, Janet Maslin from The New York Times complimented Madonna's ability to emote the songs, calling them "legitimately stellar and full of fire". Writing for the Hartford Courant, Greg Morago complimented Madonna's "remarkable understanding of the material ... While some of the numbers have lost their sharp edge ('A New Argentina' lacks requisite anger), the recording benefits from its concentration on the characters' voices. There is a vibrant, contemporary energy and fearless cinematic sweep to this welcome new stamp on the mythic life of Eva Duarte de Perón". Stefan A. Meyer, from The Herald Journal, felt that "there's a little something for everyone in Evita. It's a pop-culture clash that is sometimes quite annoying (especially in Rice's left-field rhymes) but still works like a charm". AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine called the soundtrack "exquisitely produced and expertly rendered", but "curiously unengaging." Although he commended Madonna's singing as a "startlingly accomplished and nuanced performance", Erlewine felt that she was "trying really hard to be credible, which makes it difficult to connect with her". Barbara Shulgasser, from the same newspaper, was more negative, writing that "all of Evitas songs are slightly above Madonna's limited range. With her thin voice, she peeps out a series of mournful sounds that are painful to endure". The Baltimore Suns J. D. Considine felt the soundtrack would disappoint the singer's fans "because Evita just isn't pop music—or, at least, not the kind of pop music Madonna usually makes on her own ... As a result, slogging through Evita is like listening to an opera written by someone who never got beyond learning how to write recitativo". Considine was also disappointed with the vocal abilities of Madonna and co-star Antonio Banderas; "they lack the power and tone to lend this intoned dialog a patina of musicality". == Commercial performance ==

's album Tragic Kingdom prevented Evita from topping the Billboard 200 chart. In the United States, Evita debuted at number six on the Billboard 200 chart for the issue dated November 30, 1996. It was the first entry on the chart for a "Broadway musical transitioned into film soundtrack" since Grease: The Original Soundtrack from the Motion Picture in 1978. With opening sales of 97,000 units, it also represented the largest debut for a dual soundtrack until the release of Dreamgirls in 2006. The soundtrack fell to number 28 the next week, before beginning to rise again when the film was released into theaters. Within five weeks it crept back into the top ten of the Billboard 200 and for the issue dated February 8, 1997, reached a peak of number two on the chart. It remained there for two weeks, being kept from topping the chart by No Doubt's album Tragic Kingdom, which only had an 8% sales decline to 143,000 copies. Evita spent a total of 30 weeks on the Billboard 200, and ranked at number 26 on the year-end chart. The single-disc edition of the soundtrack charted separately on the Billboard 200, reaching a peak of number 167. It reached a peak of number five on the chart, and stayed for a total of 27 weeks. The single-disc edition also charted separately, reaching a peak of number 91. Across Europe, Evita reached the top of the charts in Austria, Belgium (both Flanders and Wallonia), Czech Republic, Greece, Ireland, Scotland and Switzerland, as well as the top ten in Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and Sweden. Its performance across the European markets resulted in the soundtrack reaching the top of the pan-European Top 100 Albums chart. == Track listing ==

Credits and personnel adapted from the 2-CD edition of the soundtrack's liner notes. Musicians • Madonna – principal artist, vocals • Antonio Banderas – principal artist, vocals • Jonathan Pryce – principal artist, vocals • Jimmy Nail – principal artist, vocals • Andrea Corr – vocals • Julian Littman – vocals, background vocals • Gary Brooker – vocals • Peter Polycarpou – vocals • John Gower – vocals • Angeline Ball – background vocals • Nick Holder – background vocals • Lorenza Johnson – background vocals • George Little – background vocals • Gordon Neville – background vocals • Laura Pallas – background vocals • Mark Ryan – background vocals • Alex Sharpe – background vocals • Linda Taylor – background vocals • Fredrick Warder – background vocals • Andrew Wood-Mitchell – background vocals • Julia Worsley – background vocals • Andrew Lloyd Webber – orchestration • David Caddick – conductor • Nick Curtis – conductor • Michael Dixon – conductor • John Mauceri – conductor • David Cullen – orchestration Technical • Nigel Wright – record producer, audio mixing • Alan Parker – record producer • Andrew Lloyd Webber – record producer • David Caddick – record producer • Lawrence Dermer – record producer • Madonna – audio mixing • Dave Reitzas – engineer, audio mixing • Dick Lewzey – engineer • Robin Sellars – engineer • Mark "Spike" Stent – engineer • Jake Davies – assistant engineer • Lee McCutcheon – assistant engineer • Gustavo Moratorio – assistant engineer • Matt Silva – assistant engineer • Dave Wagg – assistant engineer • Toby Wood – assistant engineer • Dave Collins – mastering • Mark Graham – music copyist • Nick Mera – music copyist • David Appleby – photography == Charts ==

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