Rising Star Jennifer Lawrence Makes Billboard Top 100 Songs List, Beats Taylor Swift 'Hunger Games' Track [Watch]
Last month during the promotional tour of "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1," Academy Award-winner Jennifer Lawrence noted on "Late Show with David Letterman" that she loathes singing publicly, was not thrilled about having to sing for the movie and cried the day of the performance.
However, that hasn't stopped millions of people from listening to the "Mockingjay" track "The Hanging Tree" from the Hollywood "It" girl. The song debuted at No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 this week.
"The Hanging Tree" sold 200,000 downloads in its first week and debuted at No. 2 the Digital Songs chart. CNN reports that the Lawrence's orchestral folk track is currently sandwiched between Nick Jonas' R&B tune "Jealous" and Meghan Trainor's doo-wop pop number "Lips Are Movin'."
Lawrence's hit single also beat out "Safe & Sound," Taylor Swift's alternative country gem featuring The Civil Wars and taken from "The Hunger Games: Songs from District 12 and Beyond" soundtrack, which peaked at No. 19 in 2012.
Entertainment Weekly writer Emily Blake reports that stranger things have certainly happened, noting the "shocking" success of Alison Gold's "Chinese Food" premiering on the Billboard Hot 100 chart at No. 29 and at No. 5 on Billboard's Streaming Songs chart in October 2013.
The film's composer James Newton Howard penned the song, but much of credit has been given to Lawrence, who sang vocals. According to Billboard, Lawrence is the 13th Oscar winner in an acting category to chart on the Hot 100, joining the likes of Julie Andrews, Cher, Bing Crosby, Jamie Foxx, Anne Hathaway, Frank Sinatra, Meryl Streep and Barbra Streisand.
Built on the lyrics as they appear in the final installment of the trilogy from "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay" author Suzanne Collins, the song was arranged by Jeremiah Fraites and Wesley Schultz of Denver-based Americana indie folk band The Lumineers. The band, whose diverse influences include Beethoven, Guns N' Roses, Talking Heads and Bruce Springsteen, are said to also be inspired by "cinematic music and anything strange and weird," according to a press statement from their label.
According to an investigation by Vogue, Lawrence also became the most-searched female celebrity of 2014 on Google, knocking viral socialite and reality TV star Kim Kardashian to second place.
In reference to the notorious nude photo leak scandal earlier this year, someone dubbed "Jennifer L. Nudeleaks" finished in third, while singers Beyoncé, Rihanna and Taylor Swift rounded out the category.
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