Just Look Up
by Ariana Grande (featuring Kid Cudi)

Album: Don't Look Up (Soundtrack from the Netflix Film) (2021)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • "Just Look Up" is a collaboration between Ariana Grande and Kid Cudi for the sci-fi black comedy film Don't Look Up. The movie is a satirical tackling of the climate-change crisis, in which Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence play two low-level astronomers who discover there's a comet on a direct collision course with Earth. DiCaprio and Lawrence go on a giant media tour to warn humanity of the approaching comet, but they struggle to be taken seriously.
  • Ariana Grande and Kid Cudi star in the film as pop music power couple Riley Bina and DJ Chello. News about their fluctuating relationship dominates the media, eclipsing news of destruction of the Earth. "Just Look Up" starts off as a love song, then transforms into a rallying cry to listen to the scientists' message that humankind hasn't much time left on this planet.
  • US composer and film producer Nicholas Britell (Moonlight, If Beale Street Could Talk, Succession) penned the climate-change ballad alongside Grande, Kid Cudi and songwriter Taura Stinson (Kelly Rowland, Destiny's Child, Mary J. Blige and Jennifer Hudson). Britell also produced the soundtrack and composed the score. He said "Just Look Up" captures "a sense of ever-increasing astonishment at how crazy things really are."
  • Ariana Grande came up with some lyrics spontaneously as they put the track together. "Ariana most certainly could improvise, in fact, her best improv was when she sang the song for the first time," Don't Look Up writer and director Adam McKay revealed in a behind the scenes video. "She's the one who added all that stuff about, 'We're all gonna die. Turn off that s--tbox news.' That was her riffing on the first scratch track of the melody line, and the second I heard it, I was like, 'Oh, that's going in the movie.'"

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Muhammad Ali: His Musical Legacy and the Songs he Inspired

Muhammad Ali: His Musical Legacy and the Songs he InspiredSong Writing

Before he was the champ, Ali released an album called I Am The Greatest!, but his musical influence is best heard in the songs he inspired.

Michael Sweet of Stryper

Michael Sweet of StryperSongwriter Interviews

Find out how God and glam metal go together from the Stryper frontman.

Devo

DevoSongwriter Interviews

Devo founders Mark Mothersbaugh and Jerry Casale take us into their world of subversive performance art. They may be right about the De-Evoloution thing.

Dennis DeYoung

Dennis DeYoungSongwriter Interviews

Dennis DeYoung explains why "Mr. Roboto" is the defining Styx song, and what the "gathering of angels" represents in "Come Sail Away."

Tom Bailey of Thompson Twins

Tom Bailey of Thompson TwinsSongwriter Interviews

Tom stopped performing Thompson Twins songs in 1987, in part because of their personal nature: "Hold Me Now" came after an argument with his bandmate/girlfriend Alannah Currie.

Evolution Of The Prince Symbol

Evolution Of The Prince SymbolSong Writing

The evolution of the symbol that was Prince's name from 1993-2000.