When hitmaking producer The-Dream got the call to write an original song for the remake of The Color Purple, he almost couldn’t do it. He was busy — busy with Beyoncé.

“We were working on the Renaissance film, and I got a call from [music executive] Larry Jackson. He was like, ‘Yo, man, I need a record and I don’t know if you could do this,’” The-Dream tells The Hollywood Reporter.

“And I was like, ‘Ah, man, I’m in the middle of this Renaissance thing and I’m doing more.’ I think people have an idea of what they think I do and it just kind of stops there.

Like, ‘Oh, he writes a song and he goes home.’ It’s like, ‘Nah, that’s not quite what I do.’”

But much like Queen Bey, The-Dream is a skilled multitasker, and he recorded a song so compelling it’s landed him on the shortlist for best original song at the Academy Awards. “SUPERPOWER (I),”

recorded by leading lady Fantasia, is one of 15 tunes to make the cut — and he’s joined by another Color Purple track, “Keep It Movin,” written by Beyoncé mentee Halle Bailey and Renaissance collaborators Nova Wav and Morten Ristorp.

“This is one of the sweetest things ever,” he responds. “To be sitting across from people I’ve had great success with is amazing. Hopefully we’ll both try to stick it out and not bite the dust on this one.”

The-Dream has been behind a number of hits, including Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” and “Break My Soul,” Rihanna’s “Umbrella,” Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake’s “Holy Grail,” Mariah Carey’s “Touch My Body” and Justin Bieber’s debut single “Baby,” among others.

If he lands a bid when the Academy reveals its nominees on January 23, it will mark the eight-time Grammy winner’s first-ever Oscar nomination. 

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Source: The Wall Street Journal