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The company releases a video for the song from director John Carney’s “Begin Again”, performed by the popular Maroon 5 frontman, who stars in the film.
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While Oscar nomination predictions are already underway, it’s still considered pretty early to start bidding on the smaller, less headline-making categories, such as Best Original Song. The Weinstein Company, though, decided to kick off the competition early, and have just released Adam Levine’s video for “Lost Stars”, the lead single from the soundtrack of director John Carney’s sophomore feature film, “Begin Again”.
Considering his current superstardom as frontman of multi-platinum band Maroon 5 and as a judge on NBC’s hit show “The Voice”, Levine, who makes his acting debut in the film, could very well help turn the radio-friendly, soulful song into a breakout hit, and place it as a top contender for the coveted award – which Carney’s debut film, “Once”, won in 2007. That time, it was for Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova’s “Falling Slowly”.
“Lost Stars”, which is sung in the film by both Levine and co-star Keira Knightley, was written by Gregg Alexander, former frontman of 1990’s rock band New Radicals, best known for their 1998 international hit “You Get What You Give”.
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“He’s one of my favorite songwriters and he hasn’t been around and he hasn’t done anything in a long time.” Levine said about Alexander when he stopped by The Howard Stern Show last week. “He wrote all the music for this movie. He’s so talented. This is one of those songs I heard and I was just thinking to myself, ‘Man, I’m really pissed I didn’t write that song’.”
Levine, who appears in “Begin Again” as an aspiring pop star who lands a major-label record deal that affects his relationship with his girlfriend, played by Knightley, has revealed recently that he did the movie for free.
“I want to have good experiences. I don’t want to do a bunch of shit that I hate.” He told USA Today. “I want to treat [acting] completely differently because I have the very fortunate luxury of not having to think of this in terms of money.”
“Lost Stars” was released on iTunes on June 30, and the soundtrack will be available on July 1, via Levine’s 222 Records and Interscope Records.
Watch the video for “Lost Stars”:
Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, Adam Levine began his musical career in 1995, when he co-founded alternative rock band Kara’s Flowers, fronting it as lead vocalist and guitarist. After a hiatus following the band’s disbandment, Levine reformed it with a fifth member to form Maroon 5. The band released their first album, “Songs About Jane”, which went multi-platinum in the US. Since then, they have released three more albums, “It Won’t Be Soon Before Long” (2007), “Hands All Over” (2010) and “Overexposed” (2012). As part of Maroon 5, he has received three Grammy Awards, two Billboard Music Awards, two American Music Awards, an MTV Video Music Award and a World Music Award.
Levine’s father and maternal grandfather are Jewish, while his maternal grandmother was Protestant. Levine considers himself Jewish, though, according to his interview in The Jewish Chronicle, he “has rejected formal religious practice for a more generalized, spiritual way of life.”
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