Listen to Meryl Streep Tackle ‘Bad Romance’ in This ‘Ricki and the Flash’ Snippet
Legendary actress Meryl Streep proved she could play a convincing singer when she crooned through Ricki and the Flash's most sullen, slow number, but to take on one of pop's most recognizable hits? Well, that's even more impressive.
Streep, who plays the film's resident aging rock star, sings a total of 10 songs in the film (which is now in theaters), and between tracks like "Drift Away" and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" — which might be standard of rock royalty — Streep switches gears for a gritty, scaled down version of Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance." If Gaga's original was polish, Streep's rendition reduces it to beautiful rust.
In the adaptation, which you can hear for yourself above, Streep fashions The Fame Monster's most massive hit into a guitar-heavy, rock club-ready hit that includes an eerie organ, drum-banging worthy of a construction site and a pronounced "Ooh, la la!" from the frontwoman that you won't soon forget. The actress' voice is husky, replete with rasp and sounds like the product of a decade-long chainsmoking habit—in other words, it's pretty amazing. And there's more where that came from if you like what you hear.
"Meryl is such a versatile and charismatic singer and performer, and her movie band the Flash is kind of an amazing supergroup,” director Jonathan Demme told NME in June.
Listen to Meryl's take on Gaga's pop classic, tell us what you think and be sure to catch Ricki and the Flash in theaters now!
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