Rachel Zegler Brings Haunting Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes Songs to Life in Teaser

The songbird's melodies are as pure as snow.

E! News' exclusive sneak peek of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes gives a behind-the-scenes look at how the movie brought Lucy Gray Baird's soul-stirring songs to the big screen.

The clip from the prequel film shows nomadic singer Lucy Gray (Rachel Zegler) taking the stage at the Hob marketplace in District 12 to perform "Nothing You Can Take From Me" (her reaping song) with her musical troupe known as the Covey.

"Can't take my past / Can't take my history," she sings with a twang and a guitar in hand. "You could take my pa / But his name's a mystery." 

Other scenes show Lucy Gray in a meadow in District 12 singing "The Hanging Tree," the song Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) would go on to perform in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, which takes place more than 65 years after Songbirds & Snakes.

And rounding out the music from the dystopian Lionsgate movie, out Nov. 17, is a sneak peek of "Pure As the Driven Snow," the emotional song Lucy Gray writes about young Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth), her mentor in the 10th annual Hunger Games. 

Director Francis Lawrence said in E! News' exclusive clip that he spoke with author Suzanne Collins about the "huge musical element" in her story, inspired by the "old ballads" of Scotland, England and Ireland. 

Executive music producer Dave Cobb also recalled how Suzanne told him "every single detail" about the feel, sound and inspiration for the songs she penned in the book.

"It's going to be fun to take all this history of the British isles music and Southern music," he noted, "and mash it all together in this dystopian way."

The melodies—which he described as "raw and rugged"—captured Rachel's interest right away.

"When I got all of the scratch recordings for the music," the Snow White star said, "I just fell in love and was like, ‘We got this part right for sure.'"

Francis added that the team was "really able to capture that kind of 1920s to 1930s sort of Appalachian quality that we all loved and we were all aiming for."

He explained, "It's a great added element to the movie and to the story."

See more photos from The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes before it hits theaters Nov. 17:

Lionsgate released a first look at the dramatic dystopian movie based on Suzanne Collins' book.

A first look at the nomadic singer Lucy Gray Baird, played by Rachel Zegler in Songbirds & Snakes.

Lucy Gray is assigned Capitol citizen Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth) as her mentor in the 10th annual Hunger Games.

Chemistry is catching fire between the young pair.

The nomadic singer appears in the rural district in the prequel film.