The Magic of the Music in 'A Star is Born'

If like me, you have friends who are obsessed with Lady Gaga, you may have been dragged to the cinema to see 'A Star is Born'. I don't really know what I thought I was expecting, but I wasn't expecting a masterpiece. 

I went to see it pretty much as soon as it came out, so I didn't know it would go on to gather all these nominations – I didn't know Bradley Cooper would be so good as a musician, I didn't know Gaga would be so good as an actress, and I didn't know the ride I'd be taken on.

I don't really tear up over movies generally, and I didn't over this one either. I sobbed. I cried like a baby. I don't think I can ever watch this movie ever again, just because I don't know if I can withstand the emotional rollercoaster. The music is so good. The story is so good. It's exactly what a movie should be.

And then, presumably as a part of the award season, Cooper surprised Gaga's audience at a recent performance of hers, and it all just came back to me.

It's just unbelievable.

This video explains how Bradley Cooper just "learned to become a musician" for the sake of this film, like that is something one just does and how the music always had to be performed by 'real musicians' (as opposed to casting actors for the band) – and how the process of directing the movie and bringing the storyline of the film also begat the sound itself, including the opening track 'Black Eyes' which Cooper himself wrote.

Then Gaga goes on to explain how as she and Mark Ronson started writing 'Shallow' from "Ally's (her character in the movie) perspective" they didn't realise what a part of the narrative every sentence performed musically would become – and also how writing "as Ally" brought out this new style of songwriting and voice that was unlike any of her other work.

The level of talent and skill at play here is just of the highest possible level. It's truly magical how the music and the movie come together to tell a story that has been told and retold since 1937.