With 80 For Brady sporting a lineup featuring Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, Rita Moreno, and Sally Field, any song for the upcoming comedy would need a similar level of star power. Enter Jane and Lily’s 9 To 5 costar Dolly Parton, who teamed with a dream team of 80s megastars for “Gonna Be You.” With Cyndi Lauper, Belinda Carlisle, Gloria Estefan, and Blondie’s Debbie Harry, “Gonna Be You” is a feel-good track to its very core with a tech-infused beat. The song hit all major streaming platforms on January 20.
“I’m sticking with you/’Cause I know there’s no one else/Who knows me better, holds me together/And everybody else could turn on back on me/But I know that you won’t,” Dolly and co. sing in a track that motivates, inspires, and even features tinges of nostalgia with an almost 80-inspired feel. The equally fun video features the legendary singers belting it out in football jerseys.
“Gonna Be You” comes from Dianne Warren, the legendary songwriter who wrote songs for Aerosmith (“I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing”), Mariah Carey (“Can’t Take That Away”), Whitney Houston (“I Learned From The Best”) and Celine Dion (“Because You Loved Me”), to name a few. “When I wrote ‘Gonna Be You’ for 80 FOR BRADY, I wanted to write a song that celebrated these women’s deep friendship,” says Warren in a statement about the new song. “Since 80 was in the title, I got a crazy idea, why not get some of the most iconic singers from the 80s, who are still amazing and always will be, to all sing it?”
“Everyone I approached said yes and was just as excited as me!! I’m honored to have Dolly Parton, Belinda Carlisle, Cyndi Lauper, Gloria Estefan, and Debbie Harry on this song! ‘Gonna Be You’ is that song you want to sing along to with all your good friends!” adds Warren.
80 For Brady is based on the true stories of four best friends who made a trip to see Tom Brady play in 2017’s Super Bowl LI (aka when Tom led the New England Patriots back from a 28-3 score to defeat the Atlanta Falcons in overtime.) The movie was written by Emily Halpern and Sarah Haskins (Booksmart) and directed by Kylie Marvin. It’s set for a Feb. 3 release.
“Our film is a story that happens at the same time as the game — and our goal is to line up the journey of the football game with the journey of these women,” Marvin told The Hollywood Reporter. “All of these women have defined American comedy the way I think it should be: character-forward, jokes in the back seat,” the director says. “That is how we wrote and angled the characters and how they performed it. Most of the effort and energy went into making sure their relationships felt whole and complete.”
“I know the trailer is very jokey because that’s what trailers do,” he adds, “but hopefully the movie itself leans more on the character journey, and the comedy is a bonus.”