Jennifer Lawrence looks set to make a surprise debut as a pop star after a single cut from the soundtrack for the new Hunger Games film entered the UK charts.
The Oscar-winning actor’s bluesy rendition of The Hanging Tree, written by Colorado folk rockers the Lumineers and arranged by composer James Newton Howard, is at No 29 in the midweek charts. The song features on the soundtrack for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, which raced to top spot at the global box office at the weekend with a haul of $285m (£180m) worldwide.
Director Francis Lawrence said recently that his star was not keen on adding a new string to a bow that already includes an Oscar and two Golden Globes at the age of 24. “She’d probably tell you it was her least favourite day,” he told RadioTimes.com. “She was horrified to sing, she cried a little bit in the morning before she had to sing. But she did it and she did it all day – and she hated me for making her do it all day – but she did and it’s great. She’ll probably never really understand it because she’s so sensitive about the singing.”
The director added: “The Lumineers sent the melody over and then we had a vocal coach, who sort of shifted the key for Jen’s voice. Then she started working with Jen once or twice – Jen didn’t really want to do too much of the training – but she recorded it for me as a test so I could hear it. I was worried, I really thought we were going to have to do a bunch of pitch shifting, but she sounded great. What you hear in the movie is what she did on the day in the quarry.”
