Doja Cat unveils new single ‘Vegas’ from ‘Elvis’ soundtrack – listen
The track is taken from Baz Lurhmann's forthcoming Presley biopic
By Joe Goggins
Doja Cat has released a new single, taken from the soundtrack to Baz Lurhmann’s forthcoming Elvis Presley biopic – you can hear it below.
The track is the Los Angeles rapper’s unique take on ‘Vegas’, originally released by Big Mama Thornton in 1952 and then, in 1956, becoming one of Presley’s signature songs. It is decidedly a departure from either of those versions, instead very much in the style we’ve come to expect from Doja, with her trademark fierce bars laid over a stuttering trap beat.
Audiences at last month’s Coachella festival in California would have heard the track’s live debut as part of her sets across the two weekends, and now, the official audio has been made available, in what is also the first taste of the hotly anticipated film’s soundtrack. At present, only one other artist has been confirmed to appear on it; Kacey Musgraves will chip in with her own version of the King’s classic ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love with You’, but that track is yet to be released.
Austin Butler, who appeared in Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood’, will portray the titular icon in ‘Elvis’, having reportedly beaten out the better-known likes of Harry Styles, Miles Teller and Ansel Elgort to land the gig. Tom Hanks will play Presley’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker; production on the film was halted in March 2020 when Hanks became, arguably, the first A-list celebrity to test positive for COVID-19.
Filming resumed in September of that year and, now, the film is set for a June 24 release. The first trailer arrived in February. It will be the sixth film from Australian director Lurhmann, and his first in nearly a decade after his 2013 adaptation of ‘The Great Gatsby’. He is no stranger to musical extravaganzas, having helmed ‘Moulin Rouge!’ in 2001.
‘Vegas’, meanwhile, is Doja’s first new music since February, when she dropped her Tyga collaboration ‘Freaky Deaky’. Last month, Post Malone shared a slew of snippets of new material with Doja during an Instagram Live appearance; the music is expected to appear on his next album, ‘Twelve Carat Toothache’.