Will Jennifer Lawrence top the Billboard charts?
Hunger Games actress Jennifer Lawrence's rendition of 'The Hanging Tree,' for the soundtrack of Mockingjay - Part 1, premiered at number 14 on the UK charts and is headed for a repeat in the United States, Billboard reports.
Hunger Games actress Jennifer Lawrence's rendition of 'The Hanging Tree,' for the soundtrack of Mockingjay - Part 1, premiered at number 14 on the UK charts and is headed for a repeat in the United States, Billboard reports.
Hunger Games series film fans may ask Jennifer Lawrence, "Are you, are you coming to the top of the Billboard tree? Strange things did happen here, no stranger would it be, if Katniss went to number one for singing 鈥楾he Hanging Tree.鈥�"
The haunting, a cappella performance rendered by Hunger Games actress Jennifer Lawrence聽for the film "Mockingjay - Part 1," which聽premiered on Nov. 10 at the Odeon cinema in London's Leicester Square,聽has made the top 20 in the UK and is headed for a repeat here in America, according to a聽Billboard聽announcement.
Written by Suzanne Collins, who wrote聽The Hunger Games book series, and聽The Lumineers' Jeremiah Fraites and Wesley Schultz.聽"The Hanging Tree," took root at No. 14 on the聽Official U.K. Singles Chart聽Sunday.
Lawrence (in character as Katniss Everdeen) croons the song in the film, 脿 la Lorde鈥檚 version of the film鈥檚 other hit song,聽Yellow Flicker Beat.
But Lawrence, in contrast to Lorde achieves an understated and slightly chilling smoky quality that all the Autotune in the world can鈥檛 provide. The addition of a choir and an orchestra that seep in at the end only deepen the effect.
In the dystopian world of The Hunger Games, the sackcloth-and-ashes presentation of the song appears to have outshone all the glitz that usually accompanies a film score hit.聽It鈥檚 about as far as you can get聽from Whitney Houston singing聽鈥淚 Will Always Love You鈥澛爁or "The Bodyguard" in 1992.
While it鈥檚 not new to have a film score hit the top of the charts, as did "The聽Guardians of the Galaxy" soundtrack which rose to No. 1 on the聽Billboard 200, it has been a while since multiple film soundtracks hit No. 1 on music charts.
Before "Guardians," you'd have to go back to 2009, when "Hannah Montana: The Movie," "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" and "Michael Jackson's This Is It" rose to the top of the charts.
"Guardians of the Galaxy" wins for an entire movie soundtrack composed of songs that had been previously released but found new life thanks to the movie boost.聽A case in point is Meghan Trainor's "All About That Bass" with 197,000 downloads sold, according to Billboard.