Shallow

Love, Sweet Love

This piece has been inspired by Shallow, Oscar winner for 'Best Original Song' in 2019. It is on the soundtrack album of A Star Is Born.

OMG.

Did you watch Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga's performance of Shallow at the Oscars last year?

PLEASE SAY YOU DID.

The rendition was fascinating and moving. I couldn't even begin to tell you How.Perfect.It.Was. Even if you were hiding under a rock, you might at least have heard what people said about it.

Anyway, I'd waited for 532,800 seconds to discuss.

That’s 8,880 hours.

Or roughly 370 days.

The song clocked in at three and a half minutes and left me breathless. This was how it went.

0:01 
Melancholic intro notes from a guitar. 

0:04 
Cooper and Lady Gaga rose from their seats in the audience. Holding hands, they approached the stage. 

0:09 
They took their positions by the piano. Cooper began to sing. Tell me something, girl... Are you happy in this modern world?

His voice was cool and unruffled. Or do you need more? Is there somethin' else you're searchin' for.

0:14
Then he disclosed, singing off-key, I'm falling. His words were slow and soft around the edges.

1:11 
Lady Gaga responded, Tell me something, boy, her voice seductive and low. Aren't you tired tryin' to fill that void? Or do you need more?

1:29 And confessed, I'm falling.

1:50 
She then reached the sweeping chorus. I'm off the deep end, watch as I dive in, I'll never meet the ground.

2:16 
She had crashed through the surface. 

2:30 And banged furiously on the piano, hoping to get far from the shallow.

2:32 
Here was where a multitude of vowels that were welling in the deep end emerged. Oh, oh, oh, oh! Whoah!

2:34 
She continued singing, fortissimo, as if she were sharing the delightful secret of what, Oooaaww, really meant.

2:36 
And more of the same. Oooooo-oowaaaaah.

2:51 
Cooper's head nodded as he scanned an imaginary turbulent sea, the misty sky and the full moon (remember, this was performed inside the Dolby Theatre).

I thought he was done singing.

3:02 
But, no. He had gotten up and sat with her. 

3:11
Looking tenderly into her eyes, he intoned, We're far from the shallow now.

They connected in a duet with just three words, In the shallow. And just to make it clear, repeated, In the shallow, sha-ha-ha-hallow.

I got it. They were truly far from the shallow now (although I thought that was where they wanted to be in the first place because the deep end was terrifying). Love could be confusing.

3:24 
He glanced sideways at her as they sang, a sly smile playing about his lips. 

3:31 
Then they trailed off. She was breathing out a sigh, her smile growing. Her expression softened and her eyes misted.

(A hush, then an applause followed by a standing ovation)

(Deep sigh...) February rules the world… at least for 28 days, or a day more on a leap year, like today.

The month of love. 

When life is fairy-tale dreamy and you cannot stop grinning foolishly.

When you swoon over an unabashed tearjerker.

When the water, with the moon shimmering on it, is warm with love.

When you say, Goodbye, but continue to dream of a secret garden somewhere.

When you can imagine strolling along the beach where shallow waves had left a scalloped edge on the sand. 

May I say this again?

OMG.