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After a whirlwind experience with Supergirl, the singer behind the movie’s much-debated cover version of Jimmy Eat World’s “The Middle” is confident that everything will be all right.
It wasn’t until two months before Supergirl’s June 26 release that Kelty Greye got an email from the DC Studios film’s team about including her version of the 2001 power-pop anthem. This was an improbable turn of events for Greye, an as-yet-unsigned artist who had recorded the cover in her bedroom three years prior while studying commercial songwriting at Middle Tennessee State University.
At the time, Greye had just landed with sync licensing agency Think Music after getting attention for posting an original song. The agency connected her with producer KidMotel and suggested a list of singles for a possible cover. “The Middle,” which remains Jimmy Eat World’s signature tune after becoming a top-five hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart when it debuted 25 years ago, jumped out to Greye as one she had loved while growing up.
“I recorded that in my bedroom between classes in a little booth I built out of packing blankets and PVC pipe,” the performer tells The Hollywood Reporter of the recording that was not altered for the film. She had never previously performed the song and explains about the origins of her slowed-down rendition: “I was an emo. I loved that whole genre of music, but that’s not my style to sing like that. And I’m a violinist, so I talked to my producer and was like, ‘What if I put violin strings?’ He sent me the guitar track and was like, ‘What if we slow it down a bit, and your voice is really soft?’ It’s such a powerful song, and I love the message. It was really, really cool to sing it as a woman.”
