I'll Never Love Again
When Gaga was getting ready to film the final scene of A Star Is Born, where she sings "I'll Never Love Again", the singer got a telephone call that her childhood friend Sonja Durham was in her last moments of Stage IV cancer.
[7] Vulture, an online blog associated with New York Magazine wrote, "It's an act of pure emotional manipulation on Bradley Cooper's part as a director, but it perfectly encapsulates the characters' relationship: Jackson sees Ally's artistic potential, but it's she who brings it to life.
[13][14][15] Vanity Fair's Yohana Desta believed that even though "Shallow" was the front-runner in the Oscar race,[a] "I'll Never Love Again" would be "a more traditional choice, and serves as a perfect showcase of Gaga's impressive vocal range", calling it "the most heartrending song on the film's soundtrack".
"[17] Billboard's Tatiana Cirisano ranked Gaga's performance of "I'll Never Love Again" as the film's best scene and wrote, "Not only are the lyrics devastatingly beautiful, but Gaga/Ally showcases her full, skyscraper-high range.
[19] Bianca Gracie of Uproxx found it "one of the most powerful film moments" and one of Gaga's all-time best songs, saying she is "at her best when she's stripped away from all the wacky (but still beloved) synths and solely accompanied by a piano.
[21] The Washington Post's Emily Yahr found it "searing",[2] while Bethonie Butler from the same outlet named it the best song of the soundtrack, where Gaga presents "passionate but controlled vocal runs".
"[15] Comparing it to "Shallow", NME's Nick Reilly said "things get similarly deep" with "I'll Never Love Again", "even if it comes dangerously close to dropping the accomplished emotional edge that came before.
Ben Beaumont-Thomas of The Guardian found it a "hyper-emotional piano ballad, where Gaga channels Whitney for the verses but does something much more affectingly girlish and vulnerable with the high-pitched chorus.
[14] Natalie Walker of Vulture described the song as "Mariah [Carey]'s 'Without You' meets Whitney's 'I Will Always Love You'", and while she found the lyrics "too on the nose", she ultimately appreciated the "climactic finale anthem".
[25] Adam White of The Independent wrote that Gaga is "imitating" Whitney's "whoops and hums with uncanny aplomb" in "I'll Never Love Again", which is "secretly the most cinematic number from A Star Is Born as a result – a classic, made-in-Tinseltown ballad powered by stardust and glitter".
[26] Writing for Entertainment Tonight, Alex Ungerman opined "Always Remember Us This Way" would have been a more effective end to A Star Is Born, and wrote that "I'll Never Love Again" is "decent, but it feels a little more like a Whitney Houston b-side, than the emotional peak of the movie.
[30] After the soundtrack's release, the song debuted at number 36 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States[31] and has sold 226,000 copies in the country, while accumulating 66 million streams as of February 2019.
