TheJakartaPost

Please Update your browser

Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.

Jakarta Post

Taylor Swift, Andrew Lloyd Webber write new 'Cats' song for musical film

American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift and British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber have written a new song for the film adaptation of hit musical "Cats", which will be performed by ballerina Francesca Hayward in the highly-anticipated movie.

  (Reuters)
London, United Kingdom
Sat, October 26, 2019

Share This Article

Change Size

Taylor Swift, Andrew Lloyd Webber write new 'Cats' song for musical film Taylor Swift at the 2019 Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas, United States, on May 1, 2019. (REUTERS/Steve Marcus)

A

merican singer-songwriter Taylor Swift and British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber have written a new song for the film adaptation of hit musical Cats, which will be performed by ballerina Francesca Hayward in the highly-anticipated movie. "Beautiful Ghosts" will also be sung by Swift, who stars as Bombalurina in her first film role, over the end credits.

Cats, which hits cinemas in December, is based on Lloyd Webber's hugely-popular stage musical and features a star-studded cast including Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, James Corden, Idris Elba, Jennifer Hudson and Rebel Wilson.

Royal Ballet principal dancer Hayward plays Victoria, a role that has been further developed in the movie, where the actors' faces are seen and their bodies are covered in computer generated fur.

"When I first read the screenplay, the first thing I said was, 'We have to have a song for Victoria'," Lloyd Webber said in a statement, adding that the new song was an incredibly important and central part of the whole film.

Read also: New 'Cats' movie trailer brings out the claws

A behind-the-scenes video showed Swift, Lloyd Webber and Oscar winning director Tom Hooper in the recording studio, as well as snippets of Hayward in the film.

"There was an ambition and an aspiration to have an original song in the movie," Swift says in the video. "Just very much this understanding of like 'Let’s write the best song we can'."

Cats, based on poems by T.S. Eliot, opened in London in 1981, turning into one of the longest-running shows in the West End and Broadway.

Your Opinion Matters

Share your experiences, suggestions, and any issues you've encountered on The Jakarta Post. We're here to listen.

Enter at least 30 characters
0 / 30

Thank You

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. We appreciate your feedback.