Recent double GRAMMY nominee and multi-platinum selling artist Ariana Grande and GRAMMY, Oscar®-winning and multi-platinum selling singer/songwriter/musician John Legend are set to perform the Oscar and GRAMMY-winning song “Beauty and the Beast”.
The song will appear as an end credit track for Disney’s upcoming live-action film adaptation “Beauty and the Beast.” The song will also be the title track from the film’s soundtrack.
The enchanting ballad, featuring eight-time Oscar-winning composer Alan Menken’s beautiful melody and two-time Oscar-winner Howard Ashman’s unforgettable lyrics, went on to receive an Academy Award®, Golden Globe® and GRAMMY Award among other accolades.
The new rendition of this classic song is being produced by GRAMMY-winning veteran Ron Fair. Fair is a music industry lion whose career spans 37 years as a major-label record company leader and accomplished producer, arranger, recording engineer and musical director. His recordings have won six GRAMMY Awards and have been nominated 18 times. Fair discovered and shepherded Christina Aguilera, selling over 50 million albums and winning numerous GRAMMY Awards. He A&R’d Aguilera’s first five albums and championed the Black Eyed Peas to 27 million albums, 4 number-ones and multiple GRAMMY wins, as well as co-producing and arranging the strings on their global breakthrough # 1 hit “Where is The Love?” He produced and A&R’d the Pussycat Dolls six-million-selling Grammy-nominated debut album, yielding several international number-one singles.
The music video will be directed by Dave Meyers, the innovative visionary whose long-time collaborations with major artists like P!nk, Janet Jackson, Ice Cube and Britney Spears have resulted in dozens of award nominations and many wins, including a GRAMMY in 2005 for Best Music Video and 11 MTV Video Music Awards, including one for Katy Perry’s smash hit “Firework.” He recently directed the music video for P!nk’s hit single “Just Like Fire” from the Walt Disney Records soundtrack for “Alice Through The Looking Glass.”
Says Fair, “Stepping into the shoes of an Oscar and GRAMMY Award-winning classic is not small potatoes. But with today’s two greatest plutonium singers – John Legend and Ariana Grande – we are bringing the song back with a new school-old school fresh treatment that shows the soulfulness and power of what a great melody and lyric can inspire.”
Menken also provides the film score with new recordings of the original songs written by Menken and Ashman. Also featured are three new songs written by Menken and veteran lyricist and three time Oscar winner Tim Rice.
The “Beauty and the Beast” soundtrack is available for pre-order now at Amazon.com.