the beat
THE HIGHWOMEN: ANDREW LIPOVSKY/NBC. SHIRES, MORRIS: ETHAN MILLER/GETTY IMAGES. CARLILE: JOHN SHEARER/WIREIMAGE. HEMBY: ERIKA GOLDRING/GETTY IMAGES. MUSICAL: MATTHEW MURPHY 2019.Toward the end of the first act of the new Broadway
musical Moulin Rouge!, the audience’s jaws drop like a row
of dominos when Aaron Tveit and Karen Olivo, playing the
doomed lovers Christian and Satine, sing the “Elephant
Love Medley” — a he said/she said ode to romance that
contains lyrics from 21 different pop songs, including
“Torn,” “Don’t Speak” and “What’s Love Got to Do With It.”
Most “jukebox” musicals draw on the work of one
singer-songwriter. But the score for Moulin Rouge!, based
on the 2001 Baz Luhrmann film, incorporates parts of 70
pop tracks by a variety of different writers — some of which
are used in 13 original mashups created for the show.
“As far as rights and licensing, it was definitely a very
fast education,” says Justin Levine, the show’s musical
supervisor-arranger. Along with book writer John Logan
and director Alex Timbers, Levine chose potential
mashup pairings that fit the show’s narrative — say,
Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” and Gnarls Barkley’s
“Crazy.” Since songs used in mashups need to be
licensed, he worked with producer Carmen Pavlovic and
music industry veteran Janet Billig Rich to clear rights
from the relevant publishers — in some cases recording
demos to give the writers a sense of how he envisioned
using their work.
When Luhrmann made the Moulin Rouge! movie
nearly 20 years ago, he got permission to include some
of its big songs — “Pride (In the Name of Love),” “Your
Song” — thanks to his personal relationships with
creators like Bono, Elton John and David Bowie. Now,
says Luhrmann (who calls himself the musical’s “Uncle
Baz”), “there’s an understanding that using songs
outside their traditional form is really lucrative.”
Plenty of songwriters, like Lorde and David Byrne,
immediately licensed grand rights, which allow songs to
be performed in a dramatic work. Mick Jagger and Keith
Richards took some convincing but ultimately signed off
on an all-Rolling Stones mashup after hearing Levine’s
demo. And while producers persuaded 10 of the 11
composers of “Uptown Funk!” to grant rights, Bruno Mars
did not sign off — so they couldn’t use the tune.
In the end, the creative team got approvals from 161
composers represented by roughly 30 publishers. (The
compositions were licensed on a “most favored nations”
basis, where all publishers received a standard deal based
on the duration of song segments.)
That was only half the battle, though. RCA plans to
release the cast recording this fall, in partnership with
Luhrmann’s own label, House of Iona. So the show’s
producers had to secure the mechanical rights they
needed to distribute the recordings — which is especially
complicated for mashups, since licenses are required for
the individual songs as well as the mashup itself.
Their success in doing so could open up a new avenue
of business for cast recordings altogether. “We see a real
market for mining pop culture and reinventing it,” says
Karen Lamberton, RCA executive vp soundtracks, films
and TV. “We want to hit the Broadway universe; we want
to hit the folks who loved Glee and Pitch Perfect, and
then the pop universe.” —REBECCA MILZOFFBrandi Carlile, Maren Morris, Amanda Shires and Natalie Hemby didn’t
need to form a supergroup — they did it for ever yone elseINSIDE LOOK
VOULEZ-VOUS
LICENSE AVEC MOI?
The Broadway
musical Moulin
Rouge! at the Al
Hirschfeld Theater.38 BILLBOARD | AUGUST 24, 2019
Early this year, Brandi Carlile, Maren Morris and Amanda Shires started working together at
Dave Cobb’s Nashville studio. They invited Natalie Hemby — a hit songwriter for Morris, Miranda
Lambert and Lori McKenna — to pen songs for their new project. Once Hemby sent in her first demo
though , Carlile knew Hemby ne e de d to have a larger role and invite d her to join their band. During
their first session as a foursome, they sang the first verses of Hemby’s demo together, their voices in
unis on. Carlile re c alls thinking , “ ‘ No one’s c omp eting vo c ally, no one’s tr ying to s t and out .’ It felt like
a metaphor for what the band was.” As for the demo? Now titled “Crowded Table,” it became the
first song The Highwomen officially recorded for their self-titled debut, out Sept. 6 on Low Country
Sound/Elektra Records. The four members share what being in a supergroup means to them.
BY HILARY HUGHESAiming High
From left: Shires, Morris,
Carlile and Hemby
on The Tonight Show
Starring Jimmy Fallon.AMANDA SHIRES
AGE 37
HOMETOWN
LUBBOCK, TEXASShires’ contributions stand
out as deeply personal.
“Cocktail and a Song”
is her rumination on a
parent’s mortality, and
“My Only Child,” which
she wrote with Hemby
and Lambert, is about
the love she has for her
daughter. The album’s
lead single, “Redesigning
Women,” also resonates
with Shires: “It’s really
awesome that we’re
singing about our daily,
domestic lives,” she
says. “We’ve been allowed
to do that, but it [was
never] encouraged.”
BRANDI CARLIE
AGE 38
HOMETOWN
RAVENSDALE, WASH.
The album’s queer anthem
“If She Ever Leaves Me,”
written by Shires and her
husband, Jason Isbell,
was written with Carlile
and her range in mind.
Even so, because The
Highwomen aim to
represent a movement,
Carlile insists that the
project lacks ego, no matter
who’s taking lead on a
track. “There’s a wokeness,”
she says. We made “a very
real, very radical choice to
silence that natural and
institutionalized voice
saying, ‘You have to get
ahead of these gals.’ ”MAREN MORRIS
AGE 29
HOMETOWN
ARLINGTON, TEXAS
In early August, Morris
became the first female
artist in over a year to top
Billboard’s Country Airplay
chart, with the title track
off her second album,
GIRL. “We knew from the
get-go that none of us really
needed this group, which
is why it’s so special,” says
Morris. “None of us need
the money or the fame.”
She’s enamored with
“Crowded Table” for its
judgment-free message.
“We have no interest in
making angry, political
music,” she says. “There’s
enough shit in the world.”NATALIE HEMBY
AGE 42
HOMETOWN
PUXICO, MO.
Joining The Highwomen
posed a new challenge for
the seasoned songwriter:
Unlike her experience
writing with Morris,
Lambert and Hemby’s
other regular songwriting
collaborators, being part
of a quartet was unfamiliar
territory — especially
considering she was
exploring vulnerabilities
with women who were
basically strangers. That
quickly changed. “It’s not
like we were hanging out all
the time and decided to join
a band,” she explains. “We
put our heads together.”