While “Bridgerton” fans have long campaigned for Benedict’s Cinderella story to feature a cover of Taylor Swift’s “Enchanted,” the fandom flooded music supervisor Justin Kamps’ social media with requests after an orchestral version of the song went viral.
“Shortly after … that version had been released, and fans had discovered it … everyone was always tagging me in posts where they were reposting the YouTube video of that song, and just being like, ‘You have one job, you guys have to do this — it needs to be done!’” Kamps told TheWrap, noting the song was always included in early conversations about Season 4 between himself and showrunner Jess Brownell.
Kamps and Brownell had tried placing the “Enchanted” cover in a few different spots, but ultimately it landed in Episode 2, when Sophie (Yerin Ha) looks upon Benedict (Luke Thompson) as he visits Penwood House, a moment that Kamps describes as full of yearning.
It’s a feat in and of itself to get Swift’s approval, as the musician is notoriously selective on which TV and film projects she greenlights her music to be used on, with some past favorites including “The Summer I Turned Pretty” and “It Ends With Us.” “Taylor … can always be very particular with how she wants her music to be used, and [we’re] very fortunate that she let us use this one this season.”
“Enchanted” fit the bill of the “fantastical nature of the Cinderella story” that Brownell and Kamps hoped to embrace, as well as the couple’s pitfalls, exemplified best when Olivia Rodrigo’s “Bad Idea Right?” plays during Benedict and Sophie’s steamy Episode 4 staircase scene leading up to Benedict’s ask for Sophie to be his mistress.
“When it came time to pitch for this scene, I just was like, ‘Oh my god, the energy of this song and the build up and intensity and fiddle noise …. is really just like building up all this tension and release,” Kamps said, noting that the initial choice for the scene wasn’t matching “the energy of the moment.” “The whole situation that’s going on there is a bad idea, and then it ends with a horrible, horrible idea.”
Kamps also took a page from his Season 3 playbook as he incorporated Usher and Pitbull’s “DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love” into an Episode 1 ballroom scene, nodding to the cover of Pitbull’s “Give Me Everything” set to Penelope and Colin’s sexy carriage scene that went viral last season, boosting the Archer Marsh cover to reach No. 1 on Spotify’s global chart and the iTunes U.S. and U.K. top soundtrack music albums chart and No. 2 on the overall charts.
“People really got into the Pitbull last year,” Kamps said, again noting that the scene initially featured a different cover that didn’t quite fit the moment. “One of the reasons that this song worked is because I really needed something that matched the dramatic opening of that dance, where people are doing a little leap side to side … this song really worked well with that sequence, the opening of the dance there and then continued through the rest of the scene to match the energy of all of our characters, moving throughout the ball.”
While Kamps noted the team wasn’t trying to replicate the virality of the carriage scene — instead noting “we’re hoping that fans connect with [the scenes and covers] enough to make them go viral” — throwbacks like “DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love” hit the nostalgia factor for some viewers.
“We have an audience that spans all sorts of different age groups, so we lean into fans that are listening to new music now and then also maybe introduce those fans to some slightly older tracks that maybe the age group [that] trends a little bit older might also be enjoying,” Kamps said, noting the pleasure of breathing new life into older tracks.
Beyond “Give Me Everything,” several Season 3 tracks gained momentum after being featured in the Netflix hit, including Billie Eilish’s “Happier Than Ever,” Sia’s “Cheap Thrills” and BTS’ “Dynamite,” which all saw spikes on Spotify in the U.S. following the release of Season 3, per Spotify. Additionally, the Vitamin String Quartet covers of the tracks also saw impressive gains on Spotify, with streaming for “Happier Than Ever” rising 11,000%, “Cheap Thrills” soaring 9,500% and “Dynamite” increasing 3,300%.
The series premiere of “Bridgerton” back in 2020 sparked a massive surge in interest for orchestral covers, with Vitamin String Quartet, which Kamps pulled from for the inaugural season, seeing a 350% increase in streams after “Bridgerton” first aired. It’s also driven interest for orchestral groups like Yorkshire string quartet, Ebor, as well as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s pop-focused events, per Netflix.
“When I was working with Alex [Patsavas] on Season 1 … we were really just working with only mostly pre-existing covers,” Kamps said, pointing to the Vitamin String Quartet and select small groups. “After that season totally blew up the interest on the back end of newly created string quartet groups, composers, producers, everyone wanting to arrange new covers [enabled us to] … work in a space where we’re getting to feature lots of brand new covers that were created just for the show specifically.”
The interest in the music of “Bridgerton” hasn’t lost steam in its fourth season, with average daily streams for the “Bridgerton” Official Playlist jumping 271% globally on Spotify after the Season 4 debut on Jan. 29.
Kamps couldn’t say too much about what covers are featured in Part 2, which hits Netflix on Feb. 26, but noted they embody some of his favorite moments of the season. And as far as future covers go, Kamps revealed he saved a video of Hannah Dodd hoping for a cover of Chappell Roan’s “Good Luck, Babe!” for Francesca’s season, whenever that might be.
“I saved it in my favorites, just so I can keep that in mind when the time comes,” Kamps said. “I love that song, and I think it would make a wonderful cover.”
“Bridgerton” Season 4, Part 1 is now streaming on Netflix.
