In September 2006, Dolly Parton made her first guest appearance on Hannah Montana, the children’s series that catapulted her goddaughter Miley Cyrus to worldwide fame as a teenager. Parton was a living legend in the country music world but was largely unknown to most of Disney’s fictional audiences. “I met you because of Hannah Montana. And I’m very happy!” reads a comment on one of the photos shared by Dolly Parton on her Instagram profile. More than fifteen years have passed and the duo formed by Cyrus and Parton continues to benefit both parties. The artists did each other together last year to offer a New Year’s Eve concert, which was broadcast from Miami on NBC.When they performed Jolene together, Dolly Parton’s song, which turns half a century this year and which Miley Cyrus has covered countless times, was the climax of the performance. In the days that followed, the song’s streaming play grew 29.6% in the United States, according to Billboard, as fans demanded an album by the two divas together.
An idea with almost guaranteed success if we compare it to other musical examples with intergenerational duets as protagonists. One of the most recent and most lucrative in terms of perks is that founded by Dua Lipa and Elton John. The Future Nostalgia singer and British musician collaborated on Cold Heart, a remix that brought together several Elton John songs into one track remixed by electronic music group Pnau. The song, which features on John’s 32nd album The Lockdown Sessions, has been a hit since its release in the summer of 2021 and has become one of the most listened to in both singers’ discography. “I adore Dua Lipa. She is incredibly talented, absolutely brilliant and very professional. It’s a joy to be surrounded by someone so young, who has already accomplished so many things, and who is humble,” Elton John said of his duet partner in a joint interview they gave to Variety in late 2022.
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The 48-year gap between Dua and Elton pales in comparison to the six decades that separate Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett. The actress and singer first collaborated with Bennett in 2014 for the album Cheek to Cheek, which won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. They embarked on a world tour and since then their collaborations have been recurring. Both share Italian roots and have made it clear that their relationship is more friendly than professional anyway. Bennett, diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and aged 96, has retired in style with a second album with Lady Gaga, Love for Sale, out October 2021. living artist to release a record of new material.
A formula with potential
Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, protagonists of the HBO series “The Last Of Us”. Photo: AXELLE/BAUER-GRIFFIN (FILMMAGIC) | Video: EPV
The advantages of this type of cooperation are obvious and help to break down prejudices of all kinds. On the one hand, established artists unfamiliar to younger generations have the opportunity to be rediscovered by a new audience. The other half of the duo gets to show off their talent and pleasantly surprise even those who thought today’s music wasn’t for them. Everyone wins. That’s why the formula doesn’t focus on the music industry. Film and television did not miss the opportunity to unite pairs of actors born decades apart. And everything happens in plots where the age difference is not determined by the family ties of the characters. In most cases, as in music, they are the youngest.
Pedro Pascal, 47, is leading the cast alongside Bella Ramsey, 19, in the highly anticipated HBO Max series The Last of Us. Another recent success, in which the protagonists represent generations from far away times, can be found in Hawkeye. To adapt the Marvel comic of the same name to the small screen, the Disney+ series introduced Jeremy Renner (b. 1971) and Hailee Steinfeld (1996).
Steve Martin, Selena Gomez and Martin Short at the ‘Only Murders In The Building’ season 2 launch party on June 2022 in Los Angeles, California.Photo: AMY SUSSMAN (GETTY IMAGES) | Video: EPV
But perhaps the most representative example is found in Just Murders in the Building. Fiction has been one of the big hits of 2022 and one of the reasons for its good reception has to do with the great relationship between its three main characters. Disney quarry veteran international pop star Selena Gomez, mid-thirties, is the perfect counterpoint to couple Steve Martin (77) and Martin Short (72). In the series, you play three neighbors in a luxurious building who have only one thing in common: their passion for crime podcasts. Allusions to age and generational differences – present in themes such as the digital divide – function as one of the recurring jokes in the script. Working with two comedic heavyweights was a gift for Gomez, who shows complicity with her fellow cast members in every promotional appearance for the series. “I’m very lucky. It’s wonderful, I feel part of the group, I don’t feel like an outcast because I’m younger,” the artist told Us Magazine a few months ago. And the best is yet to come: In the already confirmed next season of the series, she has been sharing scenes with another great actress, Meryl Streep, 73, for decades.
In Spain, this bond of generations is not yet exploited to the same extent. But there are some promising examples. One of them is The Snow Girl, the new Netflix series based on the novel by Javier Castillo. In this case, Milena Smit (26) plays a young journalist candidate who, together with José Coronado (65), tries to solve a disappearance. Musical collaborations of this sort are also anecdotal, with the bizarre rap phenomenon being the major exception. The young Argentinian producer, 24, and Shakira, 46, made history by making their hit Session 53 the most listened-to song in Spanish in 24 hours in Spotify history. Before Shakira, the Argentinian had already worked with music stars like Residente or Nicky Jam, who were significantly older than their mid-twenties.