SZA’s original song, ‘Save the Day’ for Pixar’s Hoppers, will premiere this Friday, February 20.
Director Daniel Chong shared that R&B was his musical choice growing up and that it’s in his DNA. He then noted that during test screenings within the studio, they would play temporary post-credit songs to gauge the right mood as you leave the theater.
“And so every time we did put a song there, it was a SZA song. We used Good Days once, and then we used Saturn once. And there’s just a vibe for those two songs that I think had a melancholy to it, and a sort of joy but sadness to it that really felt like that is the mood for the end of the movie.”
Once the filmmakers felt the vibe was correct for the film, they had just one thing left to do: ask SZA. The only problem was that the team had a very small window to complete the process, and with SZA just coming off her tour, would she even say yes?
The short answer is she did say yes, and Chong elaborates, “she just understood the movie, like, intuitively, so well. So that was really gratifying. And, man, it was just emotional listening to that song for the first time.“
‘Save the Day’ is such a beautiful song to tie the film’s ending together. We can’t wait for you to hear the song in its entirety this Friday!