11-year-old Academy-Award nominee Quvenzhane Wallis has been flexing her vocal chords to take on the title role in the most recent film adaptation of the beloved broadway, Annie.

The young star pointed out that to improve her singing for the big role she had to do some practicing. “My vocal cords got better as I sang in the car, and when I (took) singing lessons, they got even better.” This will be the first time black actors will take on the lead roles of Annie and Daddy Warbucks, played as William Stacks by Jamie Foxx, so it’s no wonder so much anticipation is building.

The modernized story, featuring a stellar cast, has been all the buzz for quite some time now. The newest promotional campaign gives us a sneak preview of Quvenzhane and the cast singing “It’s A Hard Knock Life”. The sing-along Emoji video was released earlier this week by Columbia pictures as a way of encouraging fans to create and submit their very own videos.

Last month, Sony Pictures and Turnaround Arts teamed up to inspire young students chase after their big broadway dreams. Schools were offered resources needed to put on their own productions of Annie, and Quvenzhane and Jamie Foxx even took the time to visit one of the schools, Northport Elementary. Quvenzhane had said she was excited about the promotional project, adding, “Every Annie can be different, which is one of the reasons why it is so great to be a part of.”

In this updated version of Annie, the little orphan will be living in a crowded foster home, headed by the mean Ms. Hannigan (Cameron Diaz). When mayoral candidate William Stacks happens to save her from being hit by a vehicle, the opportunity to make his campaign a little more robust suddenly presents itself.

But an old story with a new twist requires new songs — or at least a few lyric changes.

Check out the Emoji video below! Can you catch where the lyrics have been updated?

And here is another video from the soundtrack.

Photo: Movie Pilot