Showstoppers, not chart-toppers

‘Defying Gravity’ and ‘Tonight’ are staple ‘I want’ musical numbers

Before the turn of the millennium, the Backstreet Boys – for reasons that had not a great deal to do with expert musicianship and a lot to do with matching white outfits – skyrocketed to chart-topping success as they gravely explained what they wanted most in the world.

I am referring, of course, to I Want It That Way – a fact none of you millennial boyband poster putter-uppers needed reminding of. Almost the nanosecond it was unleashed onto radio stations as the first single of the BSB Millennium album, I Want It That Way, the boyband version of an ‘I want’ song (the clue is in the name) conquered radio stations for reasons that, to date, largely remain a mystery.

The crux of an ‘I want’ song

What, pray, makes a chart-topping hit? Whatever the magic answer is, it cannot have anything to do with grammar, since I Want It That Way is rather ruthlessly devoid of any sense or syntax. “You are my fire, the one desire, believe when I say, I want it that way,” sings curtain-haired Nick Carter.

What does Nick want? And in what way does he want it? We are never really given any concrete answers to these burning questions. Matters are not helped with Nick muddies the water by ending the song rather emphatically with the line, “I never wanna hear you say, I want it that way.”

Protagonists in musicals do not suffer the cluelessness that plagued Nick. Equally, much like our boyband quintet poet laureates, musical protagonists absolutely adore an ‘I want’ song, and use it to tell their audiences exactly, and very specifically, what they truly want. Unlike our floppy-haired heartthrobs, however, they achieve this feat without resorting to wishy-washy words like ‘fire’ or ‘desire’. Ariel from The Little Mermaid, for example, took no trouble to hide the fact that she wants to be “where the people are” in Part of Your World. Simba from The Lion King yearns to be promoted in Just Can’t Wait To Be King. Belle in Beauty and the Beast, meanwhile, is heartily sick of her provincial town life and very explicitly sings, “I want adventure in the great wide somewhere, I want it more than I can bear.”

You may (or may not, who knows?) be gratified to learn that it is not just Disney royals or twentieth-century boybands who flounce about singing their heart’s desire for the world to hear. Here are two non-Disney (and non-boyband) ‘I want’ songs you should check out without further ado.

‘Defying Gravity’

If you succumbed to Wicked-mania (and there is no earthly reason you shouldn’t have), you will have strong memories of a near out-of-body experience during the film’s finale with the green and maligned Elphaba takes to the Western skies for the first time.

“Something has changed within me, something is not the same,” she sings softly. “I’m through with playing by the rules of someone else’s game.” In plain, simple English, Elphaba explains she has had enough of the morons surrounding her, and announces her intention to fly off into the sunset by “defying gravity”. Not just for witches, this is the anthem for anyone who has ever yearned to break free, be it from the drudgery of the kitchen, a dead-end job, or (if you must insist on being a green-skinned witch) give a giant metaphorical middle finger to the wizard who tried to manipulate you. As the song crescendos to its explosive timpani-fuelled conclusion, journeying through the most mesmerising set of chord progressions, you are transported, as Elphaba is, to the skies. Cynthia Erivo’s jaw-dropping vocals will embed into your head and become the base against which all other belting is measured. At the end of the day, you do not have to have joined the Wicked brigade to get fully sucked into the magic of Defying Gravity. All you need is a heart that beats.

‘Tonight (Quintet)’

Are you in the market for a song that simultaneously deals with the themes of both love and a good old-fashioned murderous rumble from the point of view of, well, several different people? With an edgy brass section jaggedly driving the pace without a let-up, Tonight (Quintet) from West Side Story takes care of this desire in the most beautiful and efficient of ways.

If you even vaguely know anything about Romeo and Juliet or have seen the Bollywood film Josh, the plot of West Side Story will be like a homecoming. Set in the 1950s, we have forbidden love in New York’s west side burgeoning between the former leader of a gang (Tony, of the Jets) and the sister of the leader of the opposing Puerto Rican gang (Maria, of the Sharks). As is the way with gangs, both the Jets nor the Sharks have sworn to kill each other come hell or high water. Or at least, come the mutually agreed upon date and time.

Our moment of musical mastery arrives as the Sharks and the Jets are marching towards each other one night gearing up for a battle to the death armed with knives. “Well, they began it,” sing the blame-deflecting Jets as they grimly stride to their destination. Across town, the Sharks, engaged in a similar walk, also sing, “Well, they began it”. Together, both gangs optimistically segue into the line, “And we’re the ones to stop them once and for all – tonight!”

Joining in contrapuntally, Maria (who has none of these murder problems, but is instead desperately awaiting the time she can meet her newly appointed boyfriend, Tony), sings, “Today the minutes seem like hours!” as her equally lovestruck man (in a separate part of town, but deeply involved in the same song) sings, “the hours go so slowly!” Together, our lovebirds sing, “And till the sky is light!”