To further ramp up the excitement that isn’t necessarily there already for Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, Reneé Rapp released a single from the soundtrack two weeks ahead of the film’s debut in theaters (something she also probably did to assuage fans after having to cancel/reschedule some of the dates of her tour). Titled “Lucky,” it’s got more of a “gambler’s anthem” feel than a “magician” one to it. Nonetheless, Rapp does her best to make it work—that is, with the help of co-producers Ryan Tedder, Omer Fedi and Alexander 23, who imbue the sound with something like a 90s grunge rock aura. Emphasis on “something like” in that, just as it is with Rapp starring in a Mean Girls remake, there’s something inherently ersatz about it.
Even so, by the standards of 2025, “Lucky” is easily billable as “pop-rock perfection,” with Rapp continuing to ooze the kind of confidence she’s become known for (hear also: “Not My Fault,” “Leave Me Alone” and “At Least I’m Hot”). The opening guitar notes of the track waste no time giving the listener the sense that “Lucky” isn’t going to be any exception to that rule. In fact, it couldn’t be more different from its 2000 forebear of the same name. The song that Spears (or her team) chose as the second single from Oops!…I Did It Again. And whereas the title track of that album was all awash in the kind of confidence that Rapp likes to radiate (e.g., “Oops, you think I’m in love/That I’m sent from above/I’m not that innocent”), “Lucky” served as a “softer” counterpoint. A rumination on the pratfalls of fame (and an eerie prophecy in terms of Spears’ own life and career), Spears’ song couldn’t be less related to Rapp’s (much in the same way that Spears’ “Sometimes” doesn’t very much in common with Rapp’s, which appears on Bite Me). In fact, Rapp makes hers all about getting what she wants and making no apologies when she gets it (“I’m good at getting what I want/Don’t need forgiveness or permission”).
This much is made clear from the outset, with Rapp singing during the opening verse, “Hurry up/I swear to God, I’m out of patience (okay, okay, okay)/I pull up, with or without an invitation (okay, okay, okay)/‘Cause I’m so fly and I’m so money [here, one has to wonder, of course, if Rapp has ever actually seen Swingers]/Baby, you can look, but don’t get touchy.” With the interjection of those “okays” in between certain lines, it’s obvious that someone involved in the song (even if not Rapp herself) took notes from Outkast’s 2003 hit, “Hey Ya!” Specifically, when André 3000 keeps repeating, “All right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right” (even if Matthew McConaughey already started monopolizing that phrase in 1993 thanks to Dazed and Confused). And, in contrast to Spears singing about a girl in the third person, Rapp goes all in on the first person, nonchalantly touting, “I find it kinda funny, I get so la-la-lucky/La-la-la-lucky/La-la-la-lucky.” (Note: despite the chorus, she still didn’t call the song “Get Lucky” instead of “Lucky,” ostensibly preferring to reference Britney rather than Daft Punk.) This being the part of the song that’s supposed to tie in most with the plot of Now You See Me: Now You Don’t. Sort of. For while one might expect some kind of Ocean’s Eleven-esque plot based on what Rapp is singing, the gist of Now You See Me: Now You Don’t is described as: “A diamond heist reunites retired Horsemen illusionists with new performers as they target dangerous criminals.” So, in the heist sense, sure, it does share some DNA with the Ocean’s series, but it’s not exactly gambling or casino-related. Hence, the slight bizarreness of Rapp talking about being lucky throughout the song.
At the same time, fine, it requires luck to get out of the Horsemen’s many “acts of daring” unscathed. Something Rapp also alludes to when she boasts, “I go fast, baby, I go hard/But don’t leave a scratch when I crash my car.” And, funnily enough, that particular lyric also applies to Spears during the 2000s, when she was at the height of being stalked by the paparazzi, ergo at least part of the reason for her often erratic driving “performances.” Some of which included driving with her then eight-month-old son, Sean Preston, in her lap rather than putting him in a car seat in 2006, hitting someone else’s car in a parking lot in 2007 and then fleeing the scene (while driving without a valid license) and rear-ending a car on the freeway in 2008. Even so, through all her driving misadventures, Spears probably felt safer in her vehicle than she ever did around her family.
As for Rapp, she keeps up a certain “Hollywood” motif (with car crashes and being lucky chief among cultivating it) with the Los Angeles-specific play on words, “Steppin’ on stars on the boulevard.” A line, in fact, that would feel more at home on The Substance Soundtrack than the Now You See Me: Now You Don’t one. No matter to Rapp, who gets increasingly “into her groove” as the song progresses, becoming even more irreverent with the bridge that self-references, “Okay, got my way/It’s almost like I’m Reneé/Oh, no, where’d I go?/Now you see me, now you don’t.” Because, obviously, name-checking the movie that a song is intended for is a must that’s been so long forgotten since the days of Destiny’s Child touting, “Lucy Liu/With my girl Drew/Cameron D. and Destiny/Charlie’s Angels, come on.” And, in other hands, Rapp’s flex about herself might not come off. However, thanks to studying under Kesha (as she frequently mentions), she does have the conviction of her confidence to make those lyrics work. Unlike, for example, Halsey, on her deliberate remake of “Lucky” (as opposed to just titling one of her songs that without any Britney “intent,” as Rapp has done).
Although Rapp might have only been thirteen years old when the first installment of Now You See Me came out, it seems she’s familiarized herself enough with the franchise to know that it’s all about “razzle-dazzle” anyway. And so much less about coming up with a song that’s truly tailored to the plot. Thus, while Spears’ “Lucky” might not correlate at all with Rapp’s, her “Lucky” does speak to the notion that, when it comes to show business, no one cares much about what goes on behind the scenes in order to “make shit happen.” Because, even still, with regard to entertainment, what you see isn’t what you get—and that’s how the public prefers it. Even in spite of how “transparent” and “unvarnished” everything has become as a result of social media.
Genna Rivieccio
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