Hailee Steinfeld released a new song on Friday, Oct. 23. She recorded a cover version of The Cars’ 1984 hit “Magic,” as part of the soundtrack for her new Disney animated movie “Hexed.” Fittingly, the movie is about a teenager who discovers she has magical abilities.
Steinfeld announced the song in the latest issue of her Substack newsletter, Beau Society. According to Steinfeld, the opportunity to record the song came at the last minute, and she jumped at it:
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“I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: Nothing compares to when the two (creative) loves of my life — acting and music — come together under one roof. It happened with Sinners in a crazy kismet way when I recorded ‘Dangerous’ at the 11th hour. And with my new movie Hexed, it happened again! I had an amazing, very impromptu opportunity to sing on the record, and I still can’t even believe it happened. Even better, I got to record the song with my childhood friend Demitri Lerios. The whole thing felt like pure creative magic… That’s the name of my new song: ‘Magic’ — a cover of the ’80s classic by The Cars.”
Stream Hailee Steinfeld’s new song ‘Magic’
Steinfeld said she recruited Lerios, “who was on a boat in the middle of the ocean at the time,” to fly to Buffalo to help her record the song. You know Lerios and Steinfeld are real friends if one of them is willing to get off a yacht and head to Buffalo at the drop of a hat. More from Steinfeld:
“Luckily, all the stars aligned, and ‘Magic’ came together in two days from a makeshift ‘studio’ we set up in our theater room. While we were recording, I couldn’t help but think about how perfect the timing of all of this feels…Having made a movie about a beautiful mother-daughter story, while becoming a mother myself, and recording the kind of song I envision her dancing around the kitchen counter to one day.”
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In “Hexed,” Rashida Jones voices Steinfeld’s character’s mother. Jodie Foster, Tracey Ullman, Stephen Fry, Henry Winkler and Dan Stevens also are in the cast, as is Walton Goggins, who voices a three-eyed green cat named Beef Roger Crumbchuck, which is a first-ballot Hall of Fame cartoon character name. “Hexed” was written by Jared Bush, who wrote and directed “Encanto” among other things, so feel free to set your expectations as high as you want.
The movie hits theaters the night before Thanksgiving, which means it’s up against stiff competition in the Green Bay Packers, Los Angeles Rams and U2. If you’d like to support both Steinfeld and husband Josh Allen over the holidays, you can simply wait until Thanksgiving dinner is over and catch a doubleheader of “Hexed” in theaters followed by the Buffalo Bills taking on the Kansas City Chiefs on NBC.
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