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Awesome Music / The Prince of Egypt

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While the entire soundtrack could certainly qualify to some, these are the ones that really stuck out.


  • As a musical, the film contains many songs of both emotional and artistic resonance, and has earned several awards for its soundtrack. Especially Ofra Haza who voiced Yocheved, Moses' mother, and sang the opening song ("Deliver Us") in seventeen different languages for the various dubs of the film, including her native Hebrew.
  • "Deliver Us", the song in the opening sequence, not only for being a great tone setter for the film, but for being able to show both the cruelty suffered by the Israelites and the tender love that Moses' family had for him while being able to keep a consistent tone throughout.
  • "River Lullaby": Tragic and soothing, as Moses' mother sends off her baby son down the Nile.
  • "All I Ever Wanted" was great for two reasons. One, it was a great way of showing Moses' inner struggle as well as the fact that his adoptive family truly did love and cherish him, and two, for being a piece that, despite its grand nature, managed to tell a very personal story with its lyrics.
  • "Through Heaven's Eyes", mainly because of Jethro's amazing singing voice, provided by Brian Strokes Mitchell, but also for being the point in Moses' Heroic BSoD when he finally manages to pull himself back together and find a new purpose in his life. It's a gloriously uplifting and jubilant number with a simple, yet fantastically powerful message for both Moses and the audience.
  • "Playing With the Big Boys Now", being the closest thing to a Villain Song the movie has, manages to interweave excellent music with many of the names of the Egyptian pantheon into a very threatening backing track, in addition to playing up the pure arrogance or self-assuredness of the Egyptian priests. This cover by Jonathan Young and Caleb Hyles manages to be even better with intense guitar riffs and nice, creepy vocals. What makes this even more awesomely unsettling? It's our closest thing to the Plucky Comic Relief song.
  • "The Plagues" was an absolute wonder to behold due to the sheer creepiness factor from the opening, the feeling that this was truly the wrath of God Himself coming to bear on the Egyptians, and for showing how despite the song being ostensibly about the Plagues, it was more about the bitterness and resentment that Rameses and Moses had come to feel for each other after all of their years as brothers and best friends. A Moment of Awesome, Nightmare Fuel and a Tear Jerker all rolled into one.
    • And if you think "The Plagues" was creepy in English, in German, it is raised to terrifying. It helps that the main choir puts much more effort into it. Although most of the German lyrics follow the English ones fairly closely, some of them get much, much darker:
      • The opening is is "So spricht das Herr" = "So sayeth the Lord" whispered over and over and over again.
      • "Ich send den Schwarm, ich send ihr hier, so spricht das Herr" = "I send the swarm, I send it to you here, so sayeth the Lord."
      • "Heuschrecken send ich mit dem Wind, wie sie Welt noch nie geseh'n, auf jedes Blatt, auf jedes Ast, auf dass es nie mehr weder grĂ¼n" = "I will send locusts with the wind such as the world has never seen, on every leaf on every branch, so that it will never be green again."
    • The Hebrew version has the advantage of being in the actual language of the Bible - more so than the English one, it makes liberal use of direct quotes from the passages, and those lines that aren't are spoken using the biblical form of the language. To a native English speaker, the almost alien sound of the Hebrew language gives it an extra layer of eeriness that is somewhat like Ominous Latin Chanting.
    • Jonathan Young and Caleb Hyles also covered this one, with Caleb's vocals highlighting Moses' desperation and Jonathan's showing Rameses' disgust, all while riffs and organs power the song.
    • Man on the Internet covered this one as well, bringing in the vocal talents of both Darby Cupit and Alex Beckham (along with several other vocalists for the chorus) for a spectacular performance, faithful to the original but still providing its own feel.
  • "When You Believe", truly a triumphant song in every way, and the first time that the Israelites had ever felt true happiness after generations of slavery. It absolutely deserved that Oscar win. For some context, the song sung in Hebrew by a children's choir as the Hebrews left Egypt is a translation of Miriam's "Song of the Sea":
    I will sing to the LORD, for He has triumphed gloriously,
    Who is like you, Oh LORD, among the gods?
    Who is like you, glorious in holiness?
    You in your mercy have led forth the people whom you have redeemed
    I will sing! I will sing! I will sing!
    • The pop version of the song, recorded for the film's end credits by R&B legends Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey, is also beautifully performed and awesome in its own right.
    • One Voice Children's Choir also covered the song as a tribute to the veterans of the Normandy landings; the children's angelic vocals - sung in English, Hebrew and French - combined with the rousing instrumentation are just the cherry on top.
  • "The Burning Bush." If there is any way to personify God through music, that is it. Beautiful, gentle, powerful.
  • "Red Sea"'s masterful use of tempo and instrumentation make the listener feel every emotion present in the film.
  • While "Cry" isn't particularly famous, Zimmer's use of motif and vocals accentuates the pain felt by the slaves.
  • "Death of the Firstborn" is a gorgeous minute of string-based pain, possibly his most perfect example of Playing the Heart Strings.
  • "Goodbye, Brother." From the opening, where you can practically feel Moses' mounting rage at the injustices he witnesses, to the end, most especially the final chord before he runs away from Egypt forever, as Rameses calls out for him to stop.
  • "Chariot Race": Intense, exciting, and playful all at once.
  • On the softer end of the spectrum, there's the haunting, ethereal, and appropriately Mideastern-flavored "Following Tzipporah."
  • "I Will Get There" is very inspirational and successfully conveys Moses' determination.

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