“Remember Me,” from the movie Coco

“This Is Me,” from the movie The Greatest Showman

“Never Be the Same,” by Camila Cabello

“I Fall Apart,” by Post Malone

“Love Yourself,” by Justin Bieber

“Wolves,” by Selena Gomez

“Capital Letters,” by Hailee Steinfeld

This playlist is short but sweet. I’m going to do something I normally don’t do when I put together a playlist, which is to comment on why each song is meaningful to me when I think about Going Places.

Two Academy Award winning nominees are on my playlist for Going Places. First, the song “Remember Me” from Coco had me in tears. It brought to mind the passage when Hudson is talking about Mr. Pirkle and says:

“I knew I'd be left with regrets if I let him go off by himself, with no one to mark that time for him. Someone had to remember.”

In “This Is Me” from The Greatest Showman, the line “I am who I'm meant to be, this is me” so perfectly summarizes to me Hudson’s journey of self-discovery.

In the song “Never Be the Same” by Camila Cabello she compares her love to a drug addiction. In Going Places, Hudson says, “What is love, and why does one person fall for another? I mean, really fall, beyond a crush. Beyond lust. It can’t be measured objectively, or everyone would be in love with the same person. At times, I’ve wondered if love was just a matter of being drawn, like a magnet, to the person who will make up for your own inadequacies. Cinderella’s slipper in search of a foot. Nothing more than an addiction.”

Alana is the girl everyone loves to hate but I have sympathy for her, despite the fact that she does manage to reel Hudson in again and again, against everyone’s advice. To be fair, he keeps going back for more. In Post Malone’s “I Fall Apart,” he sings: “She told me that I'm not enough. And she left me with a broken heart. She fooled me twice and it's all my fault.”

And while we’re on the subject of Alana, one of my favorite songs has to jump into this playlist and that’s Justin Bieber’s “Love Yourself.” “My mama don't like you and she likes everyone.” Enough said.

And while we’re on the subject of Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez sings in “Wolves,” “In your eyes, there's a heavy blue, one to love and one to lose.” I couldn’t have written a better line to express the feeling in Hudson’s heart the moment he first realizes he’s in love with Alana.

Finally, there’s CAPITAL LETTERS by Hailee Steinfeld which I dedicate to the relationship between Hudson and Fritzy, who helped him to believe in himself.

“Never was a leader…But then there was you…Pull me out of the crowd… you tell me there's…Nothing I couldn't do… And you tell me it's okay to be the light…And not to swing in the shadows.”