Unless you have been living under a rock, you would have probably heard of the Oscar-winning song, Let It Go, sung by Queen Elsa in the Frozen movie cum musical by Disney.
The song, Let It Go represents Queen Elsa’s acceptance of her powers and who she is. (Image from fanpop.com)
Frozen was released in Singapore theatres towards the end of last year. Since then, the song has received praise and acclaim worldwide for the powerful messages behind it and this ultimately paved the way for its Oscar victory. Let us take a look at why it is so popular – and powerful.
An Eternal Winter
When the song is sung in the movie, the protagonist Queen Elsa has just unleashed an eternal winter onto her kingdom due to her inability to control her strong ice (cryogenic) powers.
Fearful about the backlash that it may cause, she quickly runs away and isolates herself in the mountains and uses her powers to build herself an ice castle. That is where she sings the much-acclaimed song, Let It Go.
Queen Elsa embraces her cryogenic powers
The main underlying message behind this song is that Queen Elsa is finally choosing to embrace her cryogenic powers and accepting herself for who she is. The images of Queen Elsa also comply with this message – she is seen to be releasing the “binds” that lock her to her kingdom and letting her true colours and personality shine through – after so many years of living in fear and isolation.
Queen Elsa had lived in isolation for most of her life. As a young child, she had accidentally unleashed her powers on her sister, Princess Anna – thus freezing her in the process.
Since then, Elsa had been very afraid that she would accidentally freeze her sister again – and even killing her. So she had lived in fear for her entire life and locked herself inside her room because she didn’t want to hurt anyone else, let alone her sister.
The only reason why she had finally come out of her room to face the world was because of her coronation ceremony – upon turning 21.
Now, she is finally allowed to be free of the binds that were holding her down. She no longer needs to fear what other people think of her. Instead, she can simply be herself and embrace the person that she is.
Powerful message to accept our differences
Let It Go is a very powerful song because it conveys a very strong message to everyone. Like Queen Elsa, we do not need to live in fear of ourselves and of what other people think of us – just because we may be different in one way or another. Simply put, we should Let It (our differences) Go and put these aside.
After all, no two people are born the same. For example, some people may be very extroverted and love chatting to people, whereby others may be very shy and introverted. Also, some are very adventurous and sporty, whereas others may prefer to do indoor activities because they simply don’t like the sweaty outdoors.
But just like Queen Elsa did in Frozen, we should accept ourselves for who we are, instead of wishing that we could be just like somebody else. At the same time, we must accept other people’s differences and not make judgements – simply because they are not the same as we are.
That is the message that Let It Go is portraying to us all – and I think that it is a very powerful statement indeed.
Catchy Lyrics and Tune
Besides the powerfully strong message, the lyrics and the tune of Let It Go is also very upbeat and emotional at the same time. It is a very uplifting song that makes you resonate well with the character. In short, it has a special quality about it that only a winning Disney song can probably possess. (If you have heard songs from some of Disney’s timeless classics, such as A Whole New World in Aladdin and When You Wish Upon A Star in Pinocchio, then you will probably know what I mean).
When we hear the song, we are able to completely empathise with how Queen Elsa is feeling at a particular point in time in the show. As viewers, we can identify with her and our heart goes out to the young queen.
In this way, the song, Let It Go appeals to both the young and the old alike – and is a beautiful song that we can probably never get tired of listening to.
Yes, Disney’s Oscar-winning song, Let It Go definitely has the potential to be right up there – with some of Disney’s best movie theme songs. I think that Disney has indeed done it again.
If you haven’t seen it yet, you can watch the video here.
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