Ariana Grande and John Legend Will Perform Beauty and the Beast Title Track
01/12/2017 10:30 pm EST
To help differentiate it from the 1991 animated classic, 8-time Oscar-winning composer Alan Menken and 3-time Oscar winner lyricist Tim Rice have created three new songs — "Our Song Lives On," "For Evermore," and "Days in the Sun" — for Disney's Beauty and the Beast live-action film. It will also feature a new rendition of the film's award-winning theme song, "Beauty and the Beast," which was originally composed by Menken, written by lyricist Howard Ashman, and performed by Celine Dion and Peabo Bryso.
The new version — being produced by produced by Ron Fair — will be a duet featuring 4-time Grammy-nominated singer Ariana Grande and Academy Award-winner and 10-time Grammy winner John Legend.
"Stepping into the shoes of an Oscar and Grammy Award-winning classic is not small potatoes," Fair said in a statement (via ABC). "But with today's two greatest plutonium [sic] 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."
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Beauty and the Beast is the fantastic journey of Belle, a bright, beautiful and independent young woman who is taken prisoner by a beast in his castle. Despite her fears, she befriends the castle's enchanted staff and learns to look beyond the Beast's hideous exterior and realize the kind heart and soul of the true Prince within. The film stars: Emma Watson as Belle; Dan Stevens as the Beast; Luke Evans as Gaston, the handsome, but shallow villager who woos Belle; Oscar winner Kevin Kline as Maurice, Belle's eccentric, but lovable father; Josh Gad as Lefou, Gaston's long-suffering aide-de-camp; Golden Globe nominee Ewan McGregor as Lumiere, the candelabra; Oscar nominee Stanley Tucci as Maestro Cadenza, the harpsichord; Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Plumette, the feather duster; six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald as Madame Garderobe, the wardrobe; Oscar nominee Ian McKellen as Cogsworth, the mantel clock; and two-time Academy Award winner Emma Thompson as the teapot, Mrs. Potts.
Beauty and the Beast will be released in U.S. theaters on March 17, 2017.
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