With a worldwide gross of over US$200 million so far, “The Greatest Showman,” the movie musical adaptation inspired by the life story of circus master P.T. Barnum, is also a big hit with music fans.
Since its release by Atlantic Records last December 8, the soundtrack album featuring songs mostly written by Pasek and Paul (“La La Land”) has topped the album charts in the United States, United Kingdom, Italy and Australia. It also reached number one on iTunes in 65 countries.
Here in the Philippines, one of the songs is already making an impact even before the film starts screening with sneak previews scheduled on January 22 and 23 ahead of its nationwide opening on January 31.
Performed as a duet by cast members Zac Efron and Zendaya, “Rewrite the Stars” is emerging as one of the most well-loved songs in the film and an immediate hit with Filipino fans. It is currently the number one song on Spotify’s Viral 50.
In the film, Zac Efron plays Phillip Carlyle, an aristocrat and business partner of Barnum who falls in love with Anne Wheeler, an African-American trapeze artist played by Zendaya. Both actors say “Rewrite the Stars” is one of their favorite numbers in the film.
“Because it is about star-crossed lovers. Phillip stands to lose everything and Anne has her reputation at stake. They’re very much in love and the song relates how Phillip and Anne, say: ‘screw what the world says. Who cares what people think?’,” Efron said.
During a recent advanced screening for InterAksyon and other select members of media, “Rewrite the Stars” was performed live by YouTube sensation Ysabelle and Hashtag member Wilbert Ross.
Ysabelle is a Warner Music Philippines recording artist known for her acoustic covers that have become viral on her YouTube channel which now has over 391,000 subscribers. Her wistful rendition of The Chainsmokers’ “Closer” alone has generated over 2.8 million views while all her videos have a total combined views of 60 million views.
Since “Rewrite the Stars” is a duet, she asked her friend Wilbert to perform the song with her which they also later recorded and uploaded on YouTube. Zac and Zendaya as well as everyone involved in “The Greatest Showman” should be proud of the duo’s reading of the song.
“[B]oy, was it phenomenal…From the cast, to the songs, to the performances, everything was perfect. I’m probably going to watch it over and over again,” Ysabelle beamed after watching the film.
Headlined by Hugh Jackman as P.T. Barnum and also starring Michelle Williams, Rebecca Ferguson and Keala Settle, “The Greatest Showman” is directed by Michael Gracey and is a 20th Century Fox feature film distributed by Warner Bros. in the Philippines.
The film’s soundtrack is distributed by Warner Music Philippines and available for streaming on Spotify here. Another song from the album, “This Is Me” performed by cast member Keala Settle won Best Original Song in the recent Golden Globe awards.
Watch and listen to the wonderful duet of “Rewrite the Stars” from “The Greatest Showman” as performed by Ysabelle and Wilbert Ross here:
