Bradley Cooper

Bradley Cooper is best known as one of Hollywood’s most acclaimed actors and filmmakers, but he earns a place on a song-finding site for a different reason: with the 2018 film A Star Is Born, he transformed himself into a genuine singer and gave the world “Shallow,” a chart-topping duet with Lady Gaga that won a Grammy. Born Bradley Charles Cooper on January 5, 1975, in Philadelphia, he has been nominated for twelve Academy Awards and won three Grammys, all tied to his work on film music.

From actor to leading man

Cooper grew up in the Philadelphia suburb of Jenkintown and trained formally, earning a master’s degree at the Actors Studio Drama School in New York. He began his career with a guest role on Sex and the City in 1999 and a regular part on the spy series Alias, then broke through with the 2009 comedy The Hangover. A run of acclaimed films followed, including Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle and American Sniper, along with his voice work as Rocket Raccoon in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy films. By the mid-2010s he was both a box-office draw and a serious awards contender.

Becoming a musician for A Star Is Born

For his directorial debut, A Star Is Born, Cooper did far more than direct. He produced, co-wrote and starred as Jackson Maine, a hard-drinking country-rocker whose romance with an up-and-coming singer, played by Lady Gaga, drives the film. To make the role believable he undertook around eighteen months of vocal coaching, some of it with musician Lukas Nelson, and modeled the character’s voice and manner on rock and country figures. The result was convincing enough that he performed all his own singing in the film.

Shallow and a chart-topping soundtrack

The A Star Is Born soundtrack reached number one on the Billboard 200, and its lead single, “Shallow,” topped the Billboard Hot 100 and charts around the world. The duet earned Cooper two Grammy nominations, Record of the Year and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, winning the latter, and a BAFTA for Best Film Music, both shared with Lady Gaga. For an actor who had never positioned himself as a singer, it was a remarkable arrival, proof that his commitment to the role had paid off in real musical terms.

Maestro and a third Grammy

Cooper returned to music on screen with Maestro (2023), which he directed and in which he starred as the composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein opposite Carey Mulligan. The film earned him another Grammy Award for its soundtrack, bringing his total to three. Between A Star Is Born and Maestro, Cooper built an unusual second identity: a film star whose deep immersion in his roles led him into genuine, award-winning musical work, even though he never set out to be a recording artist.

A film career first and foremost

Cooper is, first and foremost, an actor and director rather than a pop or rock musician. His Grammys come from soundtracks and a single landmark duet, not from a catalogue of his own albums. Yet “Shallow” alone has become one of the most recognizable songs of its era, a fixture at karaoke nights and on streaming playlists, which is why his name turns up when people search for lyrics. His music belongs to the films that produced it.

The reach of one song

The cultural footprint of “Shallow” is hard to overstate. It became a defining duet of the late 2010s, performed live by Cooper and Gaga at the Academy Awards in a moment that went viral, and it introduced a whole audience to Cooper as a vocalist. His work on A Star Is Born and Maestro shows what can happen when a dedicated actor throws himself fully into the music a story demands, ending up with chart-topping singles and Grammy gold along the way.

A dedicated craftsman

What the A Star Is Born experience revealed is the same quality that runs through Cooper’s acting: an almost obsessive dedication to getting a role exactly right. He has been nominated for twelve Academy Awards as an actor, writer, producer and director, and his films have grossed billions worldwide. The eighteen months he spent learning to sing and play for one part is of a piece with the deep preparation he brings to everything, the reason a film star ended up with three Grammy Awards on his shelf.

One foot in two worlds

Cooper occupies an unusual place in popular culture: a respected director and twelve-time Oscar nominee who also happens to have a number-one single and three Grammys to his name. He has said he long aspired to direct, and music became a natural part of the stories he wanted to tell, first the rise-and-fall romance of A Star Is Born, then the life of a celebrated conductor in Maestro. For listeners, that means his handful of recordings carry real weight, born from films built around music itself.

Most loved songs

His film music, with a focus on the songs he performs. Each title opens through the in-site player.

An actor who became a singer for one unforgettable role, Cooper turned “Shallow” into a global hit. If one of his songs is stuck in your head, type it into the search box above to find it.