The soundtrack represents intentional artistic choices — director Kristoffer Borgli wanted music that felt timeless and from a bygone era to create jarring contrast when the secrets revealed.
Working with Zendaya required extra nuance because she's so associated with iconic music moments from Euphoria and Challengers. The team had to deliberately avoid songs that would evoke those previous films.
The Drama grossed $28 million worldwide in its opening weekend. Music supervisor Jemma Burns got the job after sending her first playlist — Shira Small's 'I Want to Lay With You' was the song she found for their wedding dance lesson scene. Alicia Keys' 'Try Sleeping With a Broken Heart' was described as a 'relatively deep cut' that isn't a household name song.
The Drama's soundtrack is calculated chaos — every needle drop serves the film's delicate balance between old-fashioned whimsy and modern brutality. Burns found musical gold in forgotten reissues while dodging the obvious. That's not luck. That's knowing exactly what a film needs to say without saying it.
A24's The Drama isn't just dominating box offices with its $28 million opening weekend — it's soundtracking the conversation, and we're here for every note. Music supervisor Jemma Burns sat down with Billboard to pull back the curtain on how Kristoffer Borgli's psychological romantic black comedy found its folk-driven soul, and some of these details are spicier than the film's controversial reveal.
Let's talk about that Alicia Keys moment, shall we? "Try Sleeping With a Broken Heart" isn't your typical blockbuster needle drop — Burns confirmed it was deliberately chosen as a "relatively deep cut" that isn't a household name song. Director Borgli was apparently adamant about avoiding music that felt like it belonged to "the culture at large" in 2026. Translation: no trending TikTok sounds, no obvious choices. The track cleared relatively smoothly, but Burns noted that artist's film tastes are always a gamble — you can't assume they want their music attached to something as provocative as this. Good thing Keys' people were "very up for it."
Now here's where it gets interesting for Zendaya stans. Burns revealed that working with the actress required an extra layer of strategic thinking because she's so heavily associated with iconic music moments from Euphoria and Challengers. The supervisor had to dig deeper to find songs that wouldn't immediately evoke those previous projects — there was literal discussion about what "giving Euphoria" meant and avoiding that specific sonic DNA. That's a level of consideration most music supervisors simply don't have to account for.
The playlist origins are pure serendipity. Burns got connected to Borgli through producer Tyler Campellone, read the script without knowing who was in the film, and immediately clicked with the director's sensibility. Her first playlist landed her the job — specifically Shira Small's "I Want to Lay With You," found through reissue label Numero. That song was literally a school project from the 1970s that Small never expected anything from, reissued in 2022. Now she's getting a revival courtesy of one of the year's most talked-about films.
The aesthetic goal was clear: old-fashioned whimsy meets modern worldliness. Burns explained that when the big secret drops, everything crashes into the present day — but until then, they're setting up this "bygone golden era" feel to make the shift more jarring. Even the end credits song, Moondog's "Do Your Thing," was chosen because it feels like it should be an American classic but isn't widely known. They're so committed to the vibe that Burns mentioned they're doing a seven-inch vinyl release of Jesse Rae's "Inside Out" — because of course they are.
The moral of the story? Sometimes the best soundtrack isn't the most obvious one. It's the song that makes you think, "I should've known that existed."
