Defying Gravity is the finale for the musical's first act, when Elphaba, who until now has seen the Wizard of Oz as a heroic figure who can give her life some noble direction, discovers that he is not at all what he seems. The Wizard's regime, in fact, is waging a propaganda campaign against the Animals of Oz (including Dr. Dillamond), who have been oppressed to such a degree that they lose their powers of speech or worse, never learn to speak at all. (Dr. Dillamond, for instance, initially starts to lose his speech in "Something Bad" when he pronounces bad as 'baaaad,' bleating like an actual goat). Realizing this, and despite Glinda's attempts to dissuade her, Elphaba vows to do everything in her power to fight the Wizard and his sinister plans. She sings of how she wants to live without limits, going against the rules that others have set for her. During the song, Elphaba, apparently cornered by those who are hunting her, enchants a broomstick to levitate and, in the last verse, rises from the stage and levitates above the angered Citizens of Oz, who try in vain to "bring her down." The song is heavily cinematic and comes to a climax for the final verse.
The famous climax of the song features Elphaba flying high above the stage. The staging of the song's in the original production relied heavily on special effects. The actress playing Elphaba was lifted up into the air by a hydraulic launch system, standing on a small platform with a safety restraint around their waist. Both the platform and restraints were concealed by a long false dress made of the same material as the actress's costume, which gave the illusion that she wasn't standing on anything. Black curtains (designed to look like Elphaba's cape billowing in the wind) and carefully designed lighting concealed the hydraulic arm lifting the platform. The sequence relied heavily on around 60 moving lights, smoke, and wind effects to give the illusion Elphaba was flying.
If a computer system for the hydraulic platform did not sense that the restraints were safely closed, the platform would not lift. If this happened, or in case of a lift malfunction, cast members were taught a "Plan B" or "no-fly" sequence where Elphaba runs downstage and cast playing the guards and townspeople lie down onstage to simulate looking up to a now airborne Elphaba.
The Act One finale is "calibrated to get everyone to stick around for Act Two".
The song is widely regarded as being the musical's signature song, although the songs "Popular" and "For Good" have lived up to its name as well. The musical has generally received thunderous applause after this song due to the song's status as a showstopper.
The song touches on elements from some earlier themes, with Elphaba singing "Unlimited!" as sung in "The Wizard and I" and the Citizens of Oz again singing that "No One Mourns The Wicked."
Lyrics and music analysis[]
The core of the song is that "Elphaba finds power through her own outsider status", which has universal appeal due to audiences rooting for outsiders. The piece begins with Elphaba and Glinda talking. They then slip into song, bickering in short sharp phrases that are reminiscent of how people argue in real life. At this point, the key signature is constantly shifting, creating a sense of unease. The song is in cut common time, but the duo rarely stick to the bar lines, often jumping in halfway in a syncopated style. In the passage "I’m through with playing by the rules...", an interval of an 11th is used.
The song builds on leitmotifs established earlier in the show and "raises the stakes" by lifting Elphaba's voice an octave and physically lifting her on a cherry picker, embodying the first time the audience sees her as the Wicked Witch of the West. The dramatic conclusion of the song features a "loud, screamy" climax of "bring me down" followed by a vocal riff that, according to Jackson McHenry writing for Vulture, has the potential to hurt the performer's vocal cords. Due to the song's difficulty, it is achievable for a few and impossible for most, thereby making those who succeed outsiders.
Reception and legacy[]
A ranking in Vulture listed the number as the best song from Wicked, deeming it the "crown jewel of the score", though noted it is an easy song to mock due to it being "ripe for acrid belting and silly embellishment". Another article in Vulture described it as the "big, belt-y centerpiece of the show", and felt it had since established an "ambivalent legacy" as the "silliest, most inspiring, most enduring song in recent Broadway history".
In the original production, if a computer system for the hydraulic platform did not sense that the restraints were safely closed, the platform would not lift. If this happened, or in case of a lift malfunction, cast members were taught a "Plan B" or "no-fly" sequence where Elphaba runs downstage and cast, playing the guards and townspeople, lie down onstage to simulate looking up to a now airborne Elphaba.
As well as Menzel and Ellis, London's Elphaba's, Louise Dearman, and Rachel Tucker recorded their own versions of the song for their albums respectively.
Idina Menzel single[]
Idina Menzel, having reprised her role as Elphaba in the London production of Wicked in 2006, recorded a remixed "pop mainstream" version of the song. It was released as a single on March 1, 2007, and was later included on the UK and iTunes versions of her 2008 album I Stand. The remix of "Defying Gravity" was also the anthem at the 2007 Gay Pride Parade and Festival in Los Angeles, and appears on the official CD from the event. The track charted at no. 60 on the official UK Singles chart in May 2008, shortly after a contestant sang "Defying Gravity" on an episode of the BBC television programme I'd Do Anything. She released the song as a single a second time in 2012 from her album Live: Barefoot at the Symphony.
Formats and track listings[]
US CD single
- "Defying Gravity" (Tracy Young's Flying Monkey's Club Mix) – 8:02
- "Defying Gravity" (Eddie Baez Club Mix) – 8:42
- "Defying Gravity" (Hani Flying So High Club Mix) – 7:04
- "Defying Gravity" (Josh Harris Vocal Club Mix) – 7:16
- "Defying Gravity" (Funky Junction & Antony Reale Club Mix) – 6:22
- "Defying Gravity" (Single version) – 3:48
Digital single
- "Defying Gravity" (Album version) – 3:46
Digital maxi single
- "Defying Gravity" (Tracy Young's Flying Monkey's Radio Edit) – 3:45
- "Defying Gravity" (Eddie Baez Radio Edit) – 4:54
- "Defying Gravity" (Funky Junction & Antony Reale Radio Edit) – 4:36
- "Defying Gravity" (Hani Flying So High Short Mix) – 4:55
- "Defying Gravity" (Josh Harris Radio Edit) – 3:53
Digital maxi single (DJ version)
- "Defying Gravity" (Tracy Young's Flying Monkey's Club Mix) – 8:02
- "Defying Gravity" (Eddie Baez Club Mix) – 8:42
- "Defying Gravity" (Funky Junction & Antony Reale Club Mix) – 6:22
- "Defying Gravity" (Hani Flying So High Club Mix) – 7:04
- "Defying Gravity" (Josh Harris Vocal Club Mix) – 7:16
Official versions[]
- "Defying Gravity" (Album version) – 3:46
- "Defying Gravity" (Single version) – 3:48
- "Defying Gravity" (Eddie Baez Club Mix) – 8:42
- "Defying Gravity" (Eddie Baez Radio Edit) – 4:54
- "Defying Gravity" (Funky Junction & Antony Reale Club Mix) – 6:22
- "Defying Gravity" (Funky Junction & Antony Reale Radio Edit) – 4:36
- "Defying Gravity" (Hani Flying So High Club Mix) – 7:04
- "Defying Gravity" (Hani Flying So High Short Mix) – 4:55
- "Defying Gravity" (Josh Harris Vocal Club Mix) – 7:16
- "Defying Gravity" (Josh Harris Radio Edit) – 3:53
- "Defying Gravity" (Tracy Young's Flying Monkey's Club Mix) – 8:02
- "Defying Gravity" (Tracy Young's Flying Monkey's Radio Edit) – 3:45
- "Defying Gravity" (Live from Soundstage) – 3:56
Lyrics[]
Musical Version[]
Glinda:
(Spoken) "Elphaba, why couldn't you've stayed calm, for once! Instead of flying off the handle!"
(Sung) I hope you're happy
I hope you're happy now
I hope you're happy how you hurt your cause forever
I hope you think you're clever!
Elphaba:
I hope you're happy!
I hope you're happy too!
I hope you're proud how you would grovel in submission
To feed your own ambition
Both:
So though I can't imagine how
I hope you're happy right now!
Glinda:
(Spoken) "Elphie, listen to me. Just say you're sorry."
(Sung) You can still be with the Wizard
What you've worked and waited for
You can have all you ever wanted
Elphaba:
(Spoken) "I know."
(Sung) But I don't want it
(Spoken) "No."
(Sung) I can't want it anymore
Something has changed within me
Something is not the same
I'm through with playing by
The rules of someone else's game
Too late for second guessing
Too late to go back to sleep
It's time to trust my instincts
Close my eyes and leap
It's time to try
Defying gravity
I think I'll try
Defying gravity
And you can't pull me down!
Glinda:
Can't I make you understand
You're having delusions of grandeur?!
Elphaba:
I'm through accepting limits!
'Cause someone says they're so
Some things I cannot change
But till I try I'll never know
Too long I've been afraid of losing love
I guess I've lost
Well if that's love
It comes at much too high a cost!
I'd sooner buy
Defying gravity
Kiss me goodbye I'm
Defying gravity
And you can't pull me down!
(Spoken) "Glinda! Come with me! Think of what we could do! Together!"
(Sung) Unlimited
Together we're unlimited
Together we'll be the greatest team there's ever been
Glinda
Dreams the way we've planned 'em.
Glinda:
If we work in tandem
Both:
There's no fight we cannot win
Just you and I
Defying gravity
With you and I
Defying gravity
Elphaba:
They'll never bring us down
(Spoken) "Well, are you coming?"
Glinda:
I hope you're happy
Now that you're choosing this
Elphaba:
(Spoken) "You too."
(Sung) I hope it brings you bliss.
Both:
I really hope you get it
And you don't live to regret it
I hope you're happy in the end
I hope you're happy my friend
Elphaba:
So if you care to find me
Look to the Western Sky!
As someone told me lately
"Everyone deserves the chance to fly!"
And if I'm flying solo
At least I'm flying free!
To those who'd ground me
Take a message back from me!
Tell them how I
Am defying gravity
I'm flying high
Defying gravity
And soon I'll match them in renown!
And nobody in all of Oz
No Wizard that there is or was
Is ever gonna bring me down!
Glinda:
I hope you're happy!
Guards/Citizens of Oz:
Look at her she's Wicked!
Get her!
Elphaba:
Bring me down!!
Guards/Citizens of Oz:
No one mourns the wicked
So we've got to bring her
Elphaba:
Ahhh!
Guards/Citizens of Oz:
Down!
Cynthia Erivo version[]
British actress Cynthia Erivo and American singer and actress Ariana Grande performed a rendition of "Defying Gravity" as Elphaba and Glinda respectively in the first part of Universal Pictures' two-part film adaptation of Wicked, which was released on November 22, 2024. Their version of the song was released on the same day as part of the soundtrack album Wicked: The Soundtrack (2024) by Republic Records and Verve Records. "Defying Gravity" was released to US contemporary hit radio stations on December 3, 2024.
The song appears as the concluding number of the film, with various score and scene extensions between the verses to work as a cliffhanger ending. The climactic shot of the number, in which Elphaba does her signature "battle cry" while up in the air at sunset, sees her cape enlarge and billow in the wind to evoke the "cherry picker" effect from the stage musical. Rather than ending with Elphaba's final verse, a score flourish inspired by the "Sunrise" portion of Richard Strauss' Also sprach Zarathustra (made famous by 2001: A Space Odyssey) was added at the suggestion of editor Myron Kerstein, so that the song and film wouldn't end abruptly. In one of the film's trailers, the song was remixed with Herbert Stothart's iconic "Wicked Witch/Miss Gulch" motif from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's 1939 film version of The Wizard of Oz.
Filming the song's sequence was delayed by six months due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike and took until about a year into production. Erivo stated that she viewed the song as a "massive journey" and wanted her character's voice to grow throughout the song. Regarding her battle cry at the end of the sequence, "I was always looking forward to that moment, just because everything builds to there. Your body and your brain and your mind – and your heart, really – are waiting to be able to release that one final note, because it’s the ultimate moment where [Elphaba] can become herself."
Composition[]
The song appears as the concluding number of the film, with various score and scene extensions between the verses to work as a cliffhanger ending. The climactic shot of the number, in which Elphaba does her signature "battle cry" while up in the air at sunset, sees her cape enlarge and billow in the wind to evoke the "cherry picker" effect from the stage musical. Rather than ending with Elphaba's final verse, as it does on the radio edit, a score flourish inspired by the "Sunrise" portion of Richard Strauss' Also sprach Zarathustra (made famous by 2001: A Space Odyssey) was added at the suggestion of editor Myron Kerstein, so that the song and film wouldn't end abruptly. In one of the film's trailers, the song was remixed with Herbert Stothart's iconic "Wicked Witch/Miss Gulch" motif from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's 1939 film version of The Wizard of Oz.
Filming the song's sequence was delayed by six months due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike and took until about a year into production. Erivo stated that she viewed the song as a "massive journey" and wanted her character's voice to grow throughout the song. Regarding her battle cry at the end of the sequence, "I was always looking forward to that moment, just because everything builds to there. Your body and your brain and your mind – and your heart, really – are waiting to be able to release that one final note, because it’s the ultimate moment where [Elphaba] can become herself."
A 14-minute video breakdown of Kerstein's editing of the sequence, with him analyzing his creative choices using the film's Avid Media Composer timeline, was released on December 23, 2024. Kerstein would later repeat this demonstration in person at the 2025 NAB Show on April 5, 2025, during a conversation panel with him and cinematographer Alice Brooks.
Critical reception[]
Writing for Billboard, Stephen Daw named "Defying Gravity" the best song of the soundtrack album and lauded Erivo's version as "one of the single best movie musical interpretations of a song that this reviewer has ever heard, and one that more than surpasses the already astronomical expectations surrounding it." He noted that the instrumental was largely unchanged from the original, leaving Erivo to put her own stamp on the song "in a way that makes you feel as though you’re hearing it for the first time." Daw praised her "awe-inspiring dexterity" in traversing her vocal range and letting the full set of emotions be heard through her voice, "wringing out every note for all it is worth" in the song's infamous bridge and battle cry. He also praised Grande's "necessary and vital assist" with her acting at the beginning of the song and her "gorgeous harmonies" in the middle. Likewise, Erivo was commended for her "raw emotion and power" by The Daily Telegraph and her flawless delivery by Variety's Chris Willman. Lisa Laman of Looper named it one of the best movie scenes of 2024, writing "Lengthier pauses are incorporated throughout the song to allow Elphaba and Glinda more time to interact. Their dissipating friendship really hits home with these freshly concocted breaks. Where "Defying Gravity" really soars in its new qualities, though, is a segment in which Elphaba falls to the ground in Emerald City after she first attempts to fly, as past negative comments from others race through her mind. Watching Elphaba soar back up to the sky and finish up "Defying Gravity" is a tremendous sight. Erivo's powerful vocals and a dazzlingly bombastic instrumental accompaniment cap off this showstopper musical number on a glorious note."
Impact on popular culture[]
On November 21, 2024, a clip from the press tour interview in which the journalist Tracey E. Gilchrist told Erivo and Grande that viewers were "holding space" for the lyrics of "Defying Gravity" went viral, creating multiple memes. Gilchrist later explained what she meant: "For me, it means being in the moment, not being distracted and feeling something on a cellular level ... I think you can hold space with lyrics of a song — one you've heard hundreds of times — and it can suddenly take on new meaning when you're a queer person." In December 2024, Universal Pictures commissioned a float based on the film to appear in the 2025 Rose Parade, with the float itself being named "Defying Gravity" after the song. On New Year's Eve of that year, fans were urged to play the song at 11:53pm EST (9:28pm EST if viewing the film) in order to time Elphaba's battle cry with the strike of midnight on January 1, 2025 to ring in the New Year.
Live performances[]
The song was performed by Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande to open the 97th Academy Awards ceremony as part of a medley of Wicked songs.
Movie Version[]
Glinda:
(Spoken) "Elphaba, why couldn't you've stayed calm, for once! Instead of flying off the handle!"
(Sung) I hope you're happy
I hope you're happy now
I hope you're happy how you hurt your cause forever
I hope you think you're clever!
Elphaba:
I hope you're happy!
I hope you're happy too!
I hope you're proud how you would grovel in submission
To feed your own ambition
Both:
So though I can't imagine how
I hope you're happy right now!
Glinda:
(Spoken) "Elphie, listen to me. Just say you're sorry."
(Sung) You can still be with the Wizard
What you've worked and waited for
You can have all you ever wanted
Elphaba:
(Spoken) "I know."
(Sung) But I don't want it
(Spoken) "No."
(Sung) I can't want it anymore
Something has changed within me
Something is not the same
I'm through with playing by
The rules of someone else's game
Too late for second guessing
Too late to go back to sleep
It's time to trust my instincts
Close my eyes and leap
It's time to try
Defying gravity
I think I'll try
Defying gravity
And you can't pull me down!
Glinda:
Can't I make you understand
You're having delusions of grandeur?!
Elphaba:
I'm through accepting limits!
'Cause someone says they're so
Some things I cannot change
But till I try I'll never know
Too long I've been afraid of losing love
I guess I've lost
Well if that's love
It comes at much too high a cost!
I'd sooner buy
Defying gravity
Kiss me goodbye I'm
Defying gravity
And you can't pull me down!
(Spoken) "Come with me! Think of what we could do! Together!"
(Sung) Unlimited
Together we're unlimited
Together we'll be the greatest team there's ever been
Glinda
Dreams the way we've planned 'em.
Glinda:
If we work in tandem
Both:
There's no fight we cannot win
Just you and I
Defying gravity
With you and I
Defying gravity
Elphaba:
They'll never bring us down
(Spoken) "Well, are you coming?"
Glinda:
I hope you're happy
Now that you're choosing this
Elphaba:
(Spoken) "You too."
(Sung) I hope it brings you bliss.
Both:
I really hope you get it
And you don't live to regret it
I hope you're happy in the end
I hope you're happy my friend
Elphaba:
(Spoken) "No, leave her alone! She hasn't done anything wrong! I'm the one you want! I'm the one you want! It's me!
(Sung) It's meeee!
So if you care to find me
Look to the Western Sky!
As someone told me lately
"Everyone deserves the chance to fly!"
And if I'm flying solo
At least I'm flying free!
To those who'd ground me
Take a message back from me!
Tell them how I
Am defying gravity
I'm flying high
Defying gravity
And soon I'll match them in renown!
Unlimited...
Unlimited...
Unlimited...
And nobody in all of Oz
No Wizard that there is or was
Is ever gonna bring me down!
Glinda:
I hope you're happy!
Guards/Citizens of Oz:
Look at her she's Wicked!
Kill her!
Elphaba:
Bring me down!!
Guards/Citizens of Oz:
No one mourns the wicked
So we've got to bring her
Elphaba:
Ahhh!
Guards/Citizens of Oz:
Down!
Down!
Videos[]
