It was a wonderfully deep process of collaboration with Mandy Moore and the choreography department, many weeks of planning and rehearsal brilliantly overseen by Music Supervisor Steven Gizicki, and a long and challenging journey with lyricists Benj Pasek and Justin Paul - because the piece acts as an overture to the story, it was really tricky to establish just exactly what the song should be about, but Benj and Justin eventually found the perfect balance between poetry and naturalism and between the specific and the general in this hymn to the daily LA routine. A lot of scrutiny went into the creation of this, a lot of drafting and redrafting - and as the only fully ensemble song in the movie, it was also the most complex in terms of vocal arrangement, staging and logistics. Everything is at stake - your contract with the audience, the establishing of a musical language, setting expectations for type of vocal delivery and lyrical idiom.

Opening numbers are always crucial, and this one took a while to build.

La la land soundtrack city of stars