“Sister Act 2” music producer reveals that's “not” Whoopi Goldberg's voice during key part in 'Oh Happy Day' song
Mervyn Warren said Goldberg didn't sing the iconic "la, la, la" notes at the beginning of the song, as she's helping Ryan Toby's character build confidence.
Whoopi Goldberg's voice as a singing nun in Sister Act 2 might be a holy miracle, but the film's music producer has added a new testament to the iconic sequel's musical legacy.
As part of The View's special 30-year anniversary reunion between the Sister Act 2 cast and crew, music producer Mervyn Warren re-teamed with Goldberg and actors Sheryl Lee Ralph, Kathy Najimy, and Wendy Makkena on Wednesday's episode of the talk show. There, Warren revealed a stunning bit of information when he confirmed that Goldberg's vocals weren't used for a particularly memorable scene in the 1993 comedy classic.
Warren recalled director Bill Duke coming up with the idea to include a specific scene in the film using the song "Oh Happy Day," which Goldberg's Sister Mary Clarence (a woman previously in witness protection as a nun) uses to inspire a student choir when she returns in the second film.
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Whoopi Goldberg and Ryan Toby in 'Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit'"The movie was already filming, so I was in the studio, I created that, I got some of the cast members, the kids, got them in to record it. I recorded Whoopi's part as a placeholder," Warren noted. "I told them we've got to get Whoopi back into the studio to record the 'la, la, las,' as we referred to them. So much happened during the production, people were doing so many different things, that we never got Whoopi back into the studio."
Goldberg cut in to confirm, "Those are his 'la, la, las,'" referencing the notes Sister Mary Clarence uses to coax a nervous Ahmal (City High group member Ryan Toby, who was also present for The View's Sister Act reunion) into singing in front of the entire school for the first time.
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"To this day, the 'la, la, las' are my voice, and not Whoopi's!" Warren confirmed, prompting Najimy — who also played a nun at the school — to turn to Makkena and exclaim, "I didn't know that. Did you know that?"
The View's Sister Act 2 reunion also saw the actors who played the original choir students in the film (Toby, Tanya Trotter, and Goldberg's daughter, Alex Martin, among others) perform the movie's legendary climactic number "Joyful, Joyful" on the set of the talk show, with direction from a habit-clad Goldberg.
Related: Whoopi Goldberg offered Pope Francis a Sister Act 3 role, says he's 'a bit of a fan'
Music supervisor Marc Shaiman sat for an interview on the special segment, too, while video messages from cast members Jenifer Lewis, Erica Campbell, Alanna Ubach, and Jennifer Love Hewitt played throughout portions of the episode.
A third Sister Act film is currently in the works at Disney, with Goldberg and producer Tyler Perry revealing on The View in September 2022 that "the Hollywood system moves a little slower" than anticipated, but Perry noted that Sister Act 3 had a "good script" in development.
The View airs weekdays at 11 a.m. ET on ABC.
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