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After a whirlwind experience with Supergirlthe singer behind the film’s much-controversial cover version of Jimmy Eat World’s “The Middle,” is confident that everything will be fine.
It wasn’t even two months ago SupergirlIn the June 26 issue, Kelty Graye received an email from the DC Studios film team about including her version of the 2001 power-pop anthem. It was an unlikely turn of events for Greye, an as-yet-unsigned artist who recorded the cover in her bedroom three years ago while studying commercial songwriting at Middle Tennessee State University.
At the time, Graye had just joined sync licensing agency Think Music after attracting attention for publishing an original song. The agency connected her with producer KidMotel and suggested a list of singles for a possible cover. “The Middle”, which remains Jimmy Eat World’s signature tune after becoming a top five hit on the chart Bulletin board The Hot 100 chart when it debuted 25 years ago, jumped out at Graye as the person she loved growing up.
“I recorded it in my bedroom between classes in a little booth I built out of packing blankets and PVC pipe,” the performer says. Hollywood Reporter From the recording, which was not altered for the film. She had never performed the song before and explains the origins of her slow performance: “I was emo. I loved the whole genre of music, but that’s not my style of singing that way. And I’m a violinist, so I spoke to my producer and said, ‘What if I put in violin strings?'” He sent me the guitar riff and said, “What if we slowed it down a little bit, and your voice was really soft?” It’s a powerful song, and I love the message. It was really nice to sing it as a woman.
With lyrics that plead, “It takes a while, little girl, you’re in the middle of a ride,” the song links to the angst-ridden emo rock scene that flourished in the 2000s, and Jimmy Eat World concluded with “The Middle” when playing Coachella last year. but, SupergirlThe film’s cover sparked widespread discussion on social media that had nothing to do with Greye’s performance or interpretation but focused on fans wondering what introspective version of Millie Alcock’s character comes from an action-packed moment in the film. Of course, the film itself has been widely debated, with DC Studios co-CEO Peter Safran confirming that its box office opening did not meet expectations.
When asked how she felt when her song received so much attention, Gray said: “As an artist, all you want to do is make people feel something. So, what an honor it is to create something that gives people such a wide range of emotions. Whether you love it or hate it, if you walk away feeling something, that’s great: ‘Wow – it gave you an emotional response.'”
The fact that social media users were so opinionated about the song’s inclusion took some time for Graye to process. “At first, it was a little surreal,” she admits. “I would see my name pop up on things and I was like, ‘This is weird.’ But after the first 24 hours, I was like, ‘You know what? This is cool. I’m down. Any emotion you want, it’s cool.’
Gray points out that she wasn’t allowed to tell anyone about including her song in the movie until the day of the movie Supergirl Released, she had no idea that would become the final drop of the needle. “Things were always up for discussion,” she says of potential last-minute changes in song placement. In fact, director Craig Gillespie revealed that 45 songs were considered for the pivotal venue THR Reports indicate that a cover of Cyndi Lauper’s song “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” came close to getting the nod. “When the movie came out, I was at work and I couldn’t go see it yet. And I was seeing spoilers online about where the song was, which was crazy,” Gray adds.
Life hasn’t changed much yet for Graye, who continues to work her day job at a customer support call center in Nashville. She admits she was on the verge of giving up her ambitions as a folk-pop singer and songwriter when she found out. Supergirland now, after it was recently released She haunts meher four-song debut EP featuring original tunes along with Nina Simone covers, she looks forward to exploring where music can take her.
“My favorite thing in the world is music in movies, so that’s always been a dream of mine,” says Gray, who hopes to one day reach out to producer James Gunn to thank him for the opportunity and find out what made her performance tick. She noted the sequence featuring her singing, “I enjoyed the movie and thought it was a really great scene. It’s really nice to hear my singing in it but I thought it was powerful for the characters.”
How does she feel about her itinerary? “I was feeling a little depressed,” Gray says, reflecting on the past few years. “And now I’ll always think of the lyrics to ‘The Middle’: It just takes a while. You’re in the middle of the journey – you’ll get there.”
