We are inching closer to the highly anticipated release of Disney's latest live-action adaptation of an animated classic, Beauty and the Beast, with less than two months until Emma Watson takes to the big screen as Belle. Marketing for the fairytale is in full swing, with the final trailer for the film is due to be released on Monday, stars Josh Gad and Luke Evans hosting an episode of The Bachelor, and plenty of posters (including the latest character posters) being released almost every week.

This month, there has also been quite a bit of new information about the soundtrack to the film, with the news that John Legend and Ariana Grande will be performing the title track (and releasing it as a single), and that Celine Dion is also recording a new song for the film. Now we have news of another new song that will be part of the Beauty and the Beast soundtrack, performed for the soundtrack by multi-platinum recording artist Josh Groban.

The song, titled "Evermore", will be sung in the film by Dan Stevens (as Beast), after he has released Belle to go to her father. The song is written by Alan Menken, the Oscar-winning composer known for his work with Disney on classics like Aladdin and The Little Mermaid. Menken co-wrote the song with Oscar-winning lyricist Tim Rice, another long-time member of the Disney musical family known for his work on The Lion King. Josh Groban was thrilled to work with this team of Disney songwriting royalty, and spoke about his childhood love of the original film:

I am honored to sing this beautiful new song by two of my absolute favorites, Alan Menken and Tim Rice. Beauty and the Beast has been with me since my childhood and to have a musical connection to this new film makes me so happy.

Beauty and the Beast Emma Watson Dan Stevens

Groban is no stranger to soundtracks. As well as his seven studio albums (two of which have made it onto Billboard's Top 20 Best-Selling Albums list of the past decade), Groban has performed on the soundtracks of multiple feature films and TV shows, including The Polar Express, Troy, Glee, and The Simpsons. The song itself is one of several completely new additions to the soundtrack. In the original film, Belle is released by Beast when she learns that her father set out to rescue her and became lost in the forest. Beast tells her to go and save him, thus proving his love by putting her needs over his. In the animation, this moment is deeply sorrowful, accompanied not by a song, but by a heartbroken roar as Belle speeds away from the castle.

Groban is a phenomenal choice for this new song, with a worldwide fan base and an immediately recognizable voice. His recent album Stages is a collection of songs from Broadway musicals, and proves that he is more the capable of doing justice to classic ballads with his own style. Mitchell Leib, president of music for Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Production, describes him as "a natural fit for this showstopper of a composition." We're thrilled to hear of the many musical additions to the film, which is already packed with the original hits that made the animation so special when it was first released. Disney is pulling out all the stops to get huge names on the soundtrack for this re-imagining, and we are certain that the end result is going to be breathtaking.

Of course, some fans may be wondering where, exactly, all this new music is going to fit in. The original feature was just under an hour and a half long, and while we don't know how long the new version is, both Maleficent and Cinderella were under two hours. Two new songs may only add a few minutes, but we know that there will also be some tweaking of the storyline, which could leave some worrying that Disney is trying to pack too many new songs into the film. Of course, with the huge box office successes of Disney's previous live-action re-imaginings, we doubt that this is going to be too much of a concern for the film.

Next: Beauty and the Beast Final Trailer Arriving Soon

Source: Disney

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