Greatest Hits Four: “He Lives In You”

Here at Bristol Show Choir, we love a Disney song, even more so a Disney musical; how great was it then, that a song from one of the musical adaptations of a beloved Disney classic made our Top Ten Greatest Hits: “He Lives In You” from The Lion King!

Originally premiering in Minnesota, The Lion King opened on Broadway on November 13th 1997; where it currently calls the Minskoff Theatre home: as the third longest running show in Broadway history! It opened in the West End on October 19th 1999, at the Lyceum Theatre where it’s still running now. It won six Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Direction of a musical for Julie Taymor, the first woman to earn the honour, and through various productions has been seen by over 100 million people worldwide!

Now, eagle-eyed Disney fans may know that “He Lives In You” is featured as the opening song in the sequel to the original film. In the musical though, the context is different, and in our humble opinion, more powerful! The song comes in Act II, and Simba has been living his best Hakuna Matata life in the jungle with Timon and Pumbaa, and its this song that is the turning point for Simba’s arc as he realises he must take responsibility and return home.

We LOVE this song! Our arrangement is choc full of delicious, goosebump-inducing harmonies and the emotional dynamics of the song change throughout the number, so we pay close attention to the volume and intensity that we sing with. Pace and timing are also critical here, especially during the introduction as it sets us up for singing the rest of the number. The tendency to speed up can again rear its head, but with the hard work of our cast, things have well and truly slot into place. To add an extra challenge, this number, like with the rest of the musical features an indigenous African language… there are six in total used throughout the show: Swahili, Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho, Tswana, and Congolese, but we at Show Choir never pass up on an opportunity to learn a new language, as you’ll also see in our next blog welcoming another Disney song to our Top Ten!