Thanks to the musical stylings of Emmy-winning composer and producer Nicholas Britell, the Don’t Look Up soundtrack is already, frankly, out of this world. But one of the film’s musical highlights is Ariana Grande’s collaboration with Kid Cudi — like the movie itself, the song “Just Look Up” balances satire with deep emotion, creating an eerie, beautiful and pretty powerful ballad. See for yourself in their performance from The Voice’s Dec. 14 finale.
Grande, a first-time Voice coach, took to the stage first; Cudi joined just in time for his verse. “Just Look Up” starts off as a wistful love song, but then it — uh — shifts. “Just look up / There is no place to hide,” Grande sings. “True love doesn’t die / It holds on tight and never lets you go.” By the end, though, she and Cudi are both bemoaning the tragic state of the world and warning viewers that “you’re about to die soon, everybody.”
It’s all pretty fitting for an apocalyptic comedy about a giant comet rapidly approaching planet Earth, and a world full of people (including politicians) who can’t be bothered to care. That’s probably why Grande and Cudi actually perform the song in the film, too: During their cameo scene, they play an arena packed with fans who’d rather have fun than think about the impending comet-sized threat. Astronomy PhD student Kate (Jennifer Lawrence) and her professor Dr. Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio) watch from backstage. That clip already dropped, but you can watch the collab in context when Don’t Look Up comes to Netflix on Dec. 24.
“This is a comedy, but the song isn’t a joke song. It’s a sincere, real song that happens to express this absurd explanation of what is happening,” Britell told The Wrap. He worked with lyricist Taura Stinson and also Cudi, who wrote his own rap, to strike that balance and create a perfect apocalyptic pop song. Maybe that’s not technically an existing subgenre, but Grande and Cudi make a pretty good case for fatalistic love songs.
