STEVIE WONDER delivers the much-anticipated duet “Faith”
[feat. ARIANA GRANDE] at all digital retailers today via Republic Records. Get the new song from Illumination
Entertainment and Universal Pictures’ event film SING HERE. Also announced
today, the official motion picture soundtrack for SING will be available for
pre order November 18 to arrive at all digital and physical retailers on
December 9. SING arrives in theaters everywhere December 21.
“Faith” unites Academy Award®- and GRAMMY Award-winning
Stevie Wonder and multi-platinum GRAMMY Award nominee Ariana Grande. Produced by powerhouses and multi-GRAMMY
Award-winning songwriter/producers Ryan Tedder [Adele, Beyoncé, U2] and Benny
Blanco [Rihanna, Ed Sheeran, Katy Perry], “Faith” marks the first song that
Stevie Wonder has contributed to a film in more than 25 years.
Stevie Wonder remains one of the most legendary and
influential artists in history. In
addition to selling more than 100 million albums worldwide, he has garnered a
total of 25 GRAMMY Awards—the most-ever awarded to a male solo artist in
history. Among countless accolades, he
is an Academy Award® winner and landed at No. 6 on Billboard’s Hot 100 All-Time
Artists. A paragon of goodwill, charity
and activism, he was even named a Messenger of Peace by the United Nations.
ABOUT SING
Illumination has captivated audiences all over the world
with the beloved hits Despicable Me, Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, Despicable Me 2 and
Minions, now the second-highest-grossing animated movie in history. Following the release of this summer’s comedy
blockbuster The Secret Life of Pets, Illumination presents Sing this holiday
season.
With its highly relatable characters, heart and humor,
the first collaboration between writer/director Garth Jennings (Son of Rambow,
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) and Illumination founder and CEO Chris
Meledandri marks the sixth fully animated feature from the studio.
The event film stars Academy Award® winners Matthew
McConaughey and Reese Witherspoon, alongside Seth MacFarlane, Scarlett
Johansson, John C. Reilly, Taron Egerton and Grammy Award-nominated Tori Kelly.
Set in a world like ours but entirely inhabited by
animals, Sing stars Buster Moon (McConaughey), a dapper koala who presides over
a once-grand theater that has fallen on hard times. Buster is an eternal—some might even say
delusional—optimist who loves his theater above all and will do anything to
preserve it. Now faced with the crumbling
of his life’s ambition, he has one final chance to restore his fading jewel to
its former glory by producing the world’s greatest singing competition.
Five lead contestants emerge: Mike (MacFarlane), a mouse
who croons as smoothly as he cons; Meena (Kelly), a timid teenage elephant with
an enormous case of stage fright; Rosita (Witherspoon), an overtaxed mother run
ragged tending a litter of 25 piglets; Johnny (Egerton), a young gangster
gorilla looking to break free of his family’s felonies; and Ash (Johansson), a
punk-rock porcupine struggling to shed her arrogant boyfriend and go solo.
Each arrives under Buster’s marquee believing that this
is their shot to change the course of their life. And as Buster coaches each of his contestants
closer and closer to the grand finale, he starts to learn that maybe the
theater isn’t the only thing that is in need of saving.
Featuring more than 65 hit songs, Sing is produced by
Meledandri and his longtime collaborator Janet Healy. Together, they have produced all of
Illumination’s films since the studio’s inception. Released by Universal Pictures, Sing arrives
in theaters on December 21, 2016.
www.singmovie.com
ABOUT ARIANA GRANDE
Within less than a year, ARIANA GRANDE captured #1 on the
Billboard 200 twice—first with her Republic Records debut Yours Truly and also
with its 2014 follow-up My Everything.
Yours Truly yielded the game-changing pop smash "The
Way" featuring Mac Miller, which went triple-platinum, landed in the Top
10 of the Billboard Hot 100, and seized #1 on the iTunes Overall Top Songs
chart. Meanwhile, the platinum-selling My Everything garnered a Grammy Award
nomination for “Best Pop Vocal Album” and spawned the six times-platinum hit
"Problem." Upon the single's release, ARIANA became "the
youngest woman to debut with over 400K sold first-week," while the song
ranked as the 4th “highest digital song debut for a female artist” and 8th
highest ever. Moreover, it debuted at #1 in 85 countries, topping the iTunes
Overall Top Songs and Pop Songs charts for four weeks. During release week, My
Everything was #1 on Spotify as ARIANA personally rose to #1 on Billboard's
Artist 100 chart. She also became the first woman in history and the first
artist since Michael Jackson to simultaneously have three
songs—"Problem," "Break Free" featuring Zedd, and
"Bang Bang" with Nicki Minaj and Jessie J—in the Top 6 of the Digital
Songs Chart. “Bang Bang” went platinum and was Grammy-nominated for “Best Pop
Duo/Group Performance.” By the end of the year, she landed four songs in the
Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, the most of any artist in 2014. ARIANA has
enjoyed a total of eight Hot 100 Top 10 smashes.
In 2013, she was named “Best New Artist” at the American
Music Awards. Other accolades followed with ARIANA winning “Favorite Breakout
Artist” at the People’s Choice Awards 2014, the “Young Influencer Award” at the
iHeartRadio Music Awards, the “Radio Disney Chart Topper Award,” “Choice Female
Artist” and “Choice Single” “Problem” at the 2014 Teen Choice Awards, and more.
At the 2014 MTV VMAS, “Problem” was named “Best Pop Video” as well. In
November, ARIANA took home the award for “Favorite Female Artist – Pop/Rock” at
the 2015 American Music Awards.
2016 sees ARIANA release her platinum-selling third full
length album, Dangerous Woman, driven by the title track which captured #1 on
both iTunes Overall Top Songs Chart and Top Pop Songs Chart minutes after
release. “Dangerous Woman” also debuted
in the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 earning her the distinction of becoming
the first artist to debut on the chart with the lead single from her first
three albums. Her current single, “Side to Side,” featuring Nicki Minaj,
recently became Grande’s eighth top 10 hit on the Hot 100.
ABOUT ILLUMINATION ENTERTAINMENT
Illumination Entertainment, founded by Chris Meledandri
in 2007, is one of the entertainment industry’s leading producers of event
animated films. Illumination, which has
an exclusive financing and distribution partnership with Universal Pictures, is
the creator of the hugely successful Despicable Me franchise, which includes
Minions—the second-highest-grossing animated film of all time—as well as
Despicable Me 2, an Academy Award® nominee for Best Animated Feature of 2013. In all, Illumination’s films, which also
include 2016’s record-breaking The Secret Life of Pets, 2011’s Hop and 2012’s
Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, have grossed nearly $4 billion in worldwide box-office
revenues and feature some of the world’s most renowned talent.
Upcoming films include Despicable Me 3, starring Steve
Carell, Kristen Wiig and Trey Parker, which is set for June 2017; The Secret
Life of Pets 2, written by Brian Lynch and directed by Chris Renaud, which
arrives in theaters in July 2018; and a newly imagined version of Dr. Seuss’
How The Grinch Stole Christmas, starring Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role
of The Grinch, which is set for release in November 2018. In addition, “Despicable Me: Minion Rush”
(more than 750 million downloads) has become one of the world’s most popular
apps, and Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem attracts huge crowds at Universal
Orlando Resort and Universal Studios Hollywood.
ABOUT REPUBLIC RECORDS
A division of Universal Music Group, the world's leading
music company, Republic is home to an all-star roster of multi-platinum,
award-winning legends and superstar artists such as Ariana Grande, Black
Sabbath, Florence + the Machine, Godsmack, Gotye, James Blake, James Bay, John
Mellencamp, Keith Richards, Nickelback, Of Monsters and Men, Seth MacFarlane, Zendaya,
among many others. Founded by brothers and chief executives Monte and Avery
Lipman, it is also comprised of innovative business ventures including American
Recordings (The Avett Brothers), Brushfire (Jack Johnson), Cash Money (Lil
Wayne, Drake, Nicki Minaj), John Varvatos Records (Zac Brown Band), Lava
Records (Jessie J, Lorde), Monkeywrench (Pearl Jam), Casablanca Records
(Stromae, Tïesto), NBC's The Voice, XO (The Weeknd), School Boy Records (PSY,
Sheppard), among others. In addition, Republic maintains a long-standing
strategic alliance with country powerhouse Big Machine Label Group which is
comprised of Big Machine Records (Taylor Swift, Tim McGraw, The Band Perry,
Florida Georgia Line, The Eli Young Band) and Dot Records (Maddie + Tae).
