Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story (soundtrack)
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The soundtrack for the 2023 historical drama limited series Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, a prequel spin-off of the Netflix series Bridgerton created by Shonda Rhimes, are two projects produced by Sony Music.
The first, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story (Soundtrack from the Netflix Series), consists of an original score composed and produced by Kris Bowers, while the latter Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story (Covers from the Netflix Series) is an reinterpretation in a classical music key of pop songs from Beyoncé, Alicia Keys, SZA, Dolly Parton and Whitney Houston discography by Bowers with brothers Brian Chan and Caleb Chan.[1][2]
Kris Bowers, who scored both the first and second seasons of Bridgerton, also worked on two original soundtrack projects for the series through Sony Music.[3] The first one, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story (Soundtrack from the Netflix Series), was supervised by Bowers, with co-production by Max Wrightson and co-writing of some tracks by Alec Sievern and Michael Dean Parsons.[4]
The idea of the second project, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story (Covers from the Netflix Series), arose following the filming of the "King's Ball scene", when after a series of songs from the classical repertoire, the director Shonda Rhimes decided to play Alicia Keys' "If I Ain't Got You".[5][6] The song is the only one with two versions: the first one is instrumental, while the second one is sung by Keys with a 70-piece orchestra of women of colour. Keys explained the creative process and the concept of the project in an interview with Rolling Stone UK:[7]
I spoke to India [Amarteifio] and she was telling me how they'd filmed the King's ball in one particular episode and they had done 30 takes with a very traditional classic song being played. [...] The director announced he wanted to change it up with a modern song and he played "If I Ain't Got You". [...] The director just ended up using that take, even though they did 30 others, and I think that was the beginning of the seed that got planted. I'd never done the song with an orchestra before, so we wanted it to be really meaningful and purposeful. [...] Getting a 70-piece orchestra of women of colour to play is a beautiful extension of that and an opportunity to really just uplift all the incredible musicians who are part of the orchestra. [...] I really wanted to bring a beautiful diversity to the perspective of this idea of royalty, which is already happening naturally in the show
— Alicia Keys on If I Ain't Got You's reinterpretation[7]
The orchestral version of "If I Ain't Got You" arranged by Bobbie-Jane Gardner was accompanied by a music video directed by Keys and Rhimes which features Ofentse Pitse, Rimon, Cherrie, Amel Bent, Delara, and Alicia-Awa Beissert.[8] The video earned a nomination at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards in the Video for Good category.[9]