You know the song: “Shallow” from A Star Is Born was a hit ever since audiences heard its opening chords in the movie’s viral trailer, before it went on to become a chart topper and ultimately win the Oscar for Best Original Song.
Now, Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga’s performance of “Shallow” at the 91st Annual Academy Awards in February is getting a new treatment: the bad lip reading take. No more “I’m off the deep end, watch as I dive in.” Instead, buckle in for an eyebrow-raising smorgasborg of updated lyrical content — that, impressively, still tracks with the way that Gaga and Cooper sang the tune live.
“Somewhere there may be a colony where spiders are friends,” goes the first verse. “I wanna see their world, ’cause it’s cool when the arachnids are friends.” Sure, Cooper.
But of course things really heat up at the emotional chorus. “Wonderin’ how long ’til we fall from the choco-cloud, into the chocolate lagoon, into the chocolate la-la-la lagoon, we all fall from the choco-cloud.” Not quite “far from the shallow now,” but yes, it still works — and will have you imagining a very different plot line for A Star Is Born, perhaps one that exists more in the world of Willy Wonka and his famous chocolate factory.
Meanwhile “Shallow” — the original recording — is still sitting pretty at number nine on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
