Nick Jonas Co-Wrote One Song on Power Ballad
nick jonas co-wrote just one song, “Spectacular,” for Power Ballad, and John Carney said he valued how little he pushed to steer the soundtrack. Carney said Jonas came in late, offered help only if needed, and never tried to take over the writing room.
Carney’s One-Song Call
“He came into the project a little bit later, and he was like, ‘If you need me to get involved [in the songwriting], let me know,’” Carney said. “But he was never like, ‘I want a piece of this or a part of that.’ I was actually quite grateful for that.”
That restraint left Jonas with a single credit on the soundtrack, while “Spectacular” appears only in fragments at a couple different points in the film. For a filmmaker whose earlier music-driven work includes Once, Begin Again, Sing Street, and Flora and Son, the setup fits his preference for songs that sit at the center of the film rather than getting treated like add-ons.
Why Carney Welcomed It
Carney said he has been unable to raise money for something that does not have a musical vibe to it, and he made clear that music has to be very front and center in his films. That makes Jonas’s limited involvement notable: a high-profile singer and actor entered the project, but not as someone trying to claim a bigger share of the soundtrack than the material required.
“You can often feel that some people are around on the off chance that the song might really work,” Carney said. “So I’m grateful when people [such as Jonas] are like, ‘If you need me, call me, but I’m not trying to get my voice in on this project.’” The line between collaboration and control is doing a lot of work here, and Carney seems to prefer the former.
What Comes After June 5
Power Ballad was set for theatrical expansion on June 5, and Carney said he would invite Jonas back if they ever build a soundtrack from scratch together. He also said, “I am doing a thing with a very cool star from that world, but I’m not allowed to talk about it yet, which makes it sound really interesting,” before adding, “We’re going to work on the music together, but I can’t tell you who it is.”
For now, the clean read is simple: Jonas made a small, deliberate contribution, and Carney got the kind of low-friction collaboration he says he wants from music-first films. If they work together again, the real test will be whether Jonas stays in that supporting lane or gets handed a soundtrack built around him from the start.
