Sofia Carson’s journey to the Oscar stage is an uncommon one: The 29-year-old singer, songwriter and actress had her begin visitor starring on Disney Channel exhibits earlier than breaking into movie because the daughter of the Evil Queen (of Snow White infamy) within the community’s unique film Descendants. From there, she acted and created unique music for the Netflix drama Purple Hearts. Now, she’s the vocalist behind Diane Warren’s Oscar-nominated monitor “Applause” from the anthology movie Tell It Like a Woman, composed of seven brief tales centered on feminine protagonists. “I still pinch myself about the very real reality that I am talking about the Oscars,” she says of being requested to sing on the ceremony, “and that Lady Gaga and Rihanna will also be performing on the same stage.” For the rendition, Warren will be a part of Carson onstage, the primary time the author has carried out on the Oscars, regardless of her 14 nominations.
Carson and Warren’s collaboration started over social media. “I’ve always longed to work with [Warren], of course,” Carson remembers. “Diane [sent] a DM and said that she had a song that she thought was perfect for me, very much in line with who I was as a woman, as an artist and as a female activist.” The track got here from Warren through e-mail. “The moment I heard the song, I knew it would be one of the greatest honors of my life to be the voice of that anthem,” says Carson. “It was something greater than all of us.”
Years handed after a demo was recorded, with the film delayed by COVID till “about six months ago, when we were getting ready to release the film and release the song,” Carson explains. During that point, “Applause” developed into an emotional ballad. “I think we knew as I was doing the song that we had something special on our hands,” Carson provides. “With women literally fighting for their right to live and to speak, the song just felt like something the world needed to hear.”
Carson carried out “Applause” with songwriter Diane Warren in Santa Monica in December
Amy Sussman/Getty Images
Carson additionally says “Applause” embodies her private reflection of her identification as an artist with a accountability to carry herself to account. “I’ve dedicated myself to ensuring that every word that I say, everything I write, every role that I play … I know that there’s one girl in some corner of the world that’s going to watch or listen to that,” she says, “and I want her to feel seen and inspired or in some way empowered. That has been the guiding light in every decision that I’ve made in this business. This song is part of a greater movement that we’re all fighting, every day, to create a new paradigm where gender parity isn’t the exception, but the rule.”
At the movie’s Taormina Film Festival screening in Italy, Warren and Carson carried out “Applause” for the primary time, and Carson met among the administrators on Tell It Like a Woman, a world lineup that features Taraji P. Henson, Catherine Hardwicke, India’s Leena Yadav, Argentina’s Lucía Puenzo and Italy’s Maria Sole Tognazzi. (Jennifer Hudson, who seems within the movie, was additionally current.) “All of these women are part of this film and this movement, united together,” she says. “It was such a beautiful, instant sisterhood that was made.”
This story first appeared in a Feb. stand-alone difficulty of The Hollywood Reporter journal. To obtain the journal, click here to subscribe.
