Going into a trailer for the sequel to the hit animated movie Sing, which was already basically an extended Now That’s What I Call Music! commercial with animals and distracting celebrity voice cameos, you should expect to hear some songs. Maybe more than one song. Maybe some breakdowns where you actually hear the characters sing the songs. You may not be expecting to hear, like, eight songs, some of which are repeated and some of which fade out so other songs can come in and then fade back in after those songs end. You’ve probably heard Shawn Mendes’ “There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back,” but have you heard it three or four times in one movie trailer? Well, you can now, because there’s nothing holdin’ you baaaack!
Sorry, we can’t help it, just from watching this trailer we’ve now heard the song so many times that Spotify has sent us an email congratulating us on being Shawn Mendes’ biggest fan. We can even prove it by pointing out that the song is from an album called Illuminate, and do you know what the name of the studio behind Sing is? Illumination! This is destiny. This is also a good opportunity for kids to get into System Of A Down and for them to ask their parents who Bono is, because those two topics rarely come up in kid-oriented media anymore.
Anyway, Sing 2 looks like some kind of Eurovision-style singing competition, with Matthew McConaughey’s koala guy and the singers from the first Sing putting on a show that requires reclusive superstar songwriter Clay Calloway, who is a big and mean lion played by Bono. Seth MacFarlane doesn’t seem to be in it, so that’s probably good news to most people, and it signals a shift away from old standards in favor of… you know, “There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back.”