Taylor Swift isn’t limiting her participation in the new film version of “Cats” to just an acting role after all. The pop star has collaborated with composer Andrew Lloyd Webber on a new song, “Beautiful Ghosts,” for the movie.
The new number will be sung in a narrative moment in the film by English ballerina Francesca Hayward, who plays Victoria. Swift, who plays Bombalurina, does not perform “Beautiful Ghosts” during the film but will sing her own version under the film’s end titles.
The song has been under wraps for nearly a year. It was penned by Swift and Lloyd Webber during shooting of the film in late 2018, coming together spontaneously as the outgrowth of a rehearsal the two had planned to go over Swift’s performance of a song she sings in the movie, “Macavity the Mystery Cat.”
As the long-running stage musical was reconceived as a movie by director Tom Hooper (“The King’s Speech,” “Les Miserables”) and writer Lee Hall, the “white cat” character, Victoria, was elevated to a much larger role. But this now-central character didn’t have a lead vocal number of her own, so Lloyd Webber was working on the music for a new song for the character when Swift reportedly offered to write a lyric, then contribute to the music as well. Credit for music and lyrics is shared by Swift and Lloyd Webber.
“Beautiful Ghosts” will enable “Cats” to be eligible for best song awards at the Oscars, Golden Globes and other end-of-year movie honors. The remainder of the score consists of Lloyd Webber’s and Trevor Nunn’s setting of verse by T.S. Eliot, author of “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats,” first heard in the original 1981 stage production.
Also in the film’s cast are Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Jennifer Hudson, Idris Elba, James Corden, Rebel Wilson and Jason Derulo. Hudson sings the show’s big hit, “Memory.”
Lloyd Webber won a 1996 Oscar for a new song he and Tim Rice penned for the film version of “Evita.” Swift has never been nominated, although her songs for films have earned nominations for Golden Globes (“Safe and Sound” for 2012’s “The Hunger Games,” “Sweeter Than Fiction” for 2013’s “One Chance”) and a Grammy (“I Don’t Wanna Live Forever” from 2017’s “Fifty Shades Darker”).
The song’s commercial release date has yet to be determined, although brief snippets will be heard in EPK footage soon to be released by the studio.
The news was first reported by London’s Daily Mail.