Lady Gaga revealed the deeper meaning behind Shallow as she accepted the award for Best Song at the 2019 Critics Choice Awards.
There’s no getting away from it: the Best Song category at the 2019 Critics’ Choice Awards was packed to the brim with brilliant music. Think Black Panther‘s “All the Stars,” “Girl in the Movies,” from Netflix’s Dumplin, and RBG‘s “I’ll Fight”, not to mention two toe-tapping tunes from Mary Poppins Returns in the form of “The Place Where Lost Things Go” and “Trip a Little Light Fantastic”.
However, it was the beautiful and bittersweet “Shallow”, from A Star Is Born, which won the prize. And Lady Gaga, who starred as Ally in Bradley Cooper’s directorial debut, seemed completely overwhelmed when she stepped up to collect her accolade.
“Oh my goodness,” she said, voice cracking with emotion. “Thank you so much.”
Referring to her fellow songwriters, Gaga continued: “This means the world to us. I’ll never forget when we wrote this song together with Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt.
“I’ll never forget playing it for Bradley [Cooper] for the first time and seeing his face light up and then singing it live together, take after take,” she added of her director and co-star.
“I was mesmerised both as myself and as my character Ally. I was basking in the brilliant transformation of Bradley into Jackson Maine, singing on his stage, and overwhelmed by the storytelling and power in his voice.”
Listen to the song for yourself via the video below:
In a bid to unveil the deeper meaning behind “Shallow”, Gaga explained: “This song is a conversation between men and women, asking each other questions about life … and the shallowness of a modern era.
“I’m so happy it resonated with you,” she added.
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Following its release, “Shallow” became one of the biggest hits of 2018, reaching number five on the Billboard Hot 100 and topping other charts internationally.
“It’s just kind of like really beautiful,” Gaga said of the single’s success during her Variety Actors on Actor interview with Lin-Manuel Miranda. “Because I know that it’s connecting with every single person completely differently, and that is really a special thing.”
She went on to say that, to her, the song represents “a conversation between a man and a woman, and he actually listens to her”.
“I think we live in a time when this is something that’s really important to women,” stressed Gaga, adding that she feels “Shallow” is “one of the most authentic things I’ve ever written”.
“Women want to be heard.”
Congratulations to Lady Gaga and the rest of the A Star Is Born team.
Image: Getty
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