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Soul Music: Defying Gravity from Wicked

Defying Gravity from Wicked

BBC Radio 4 - Soul Music, Defying Gravity from Wicked

The power of the anthem from the hit musical.

Elphaba's song Defying Gravity from the hit musical Wicked has become a powerful anthem for people from all walks of life, and this episode tells some of their stories.

Wicked the musical is 20 years old in 2023. The story of the Wizard of Oz told from the witches' perspective examines themes of difference, power and alienation. The so called Wicked Witch of the West Elphaba born with green skin experiences the pain of growing up different and of longing for acceptance. No surprise then that anybody who has ever felt marginalised or that they don't fit in is drawn to her story.  Defying Gravity is Elphaba's war-cry at the end of Act One as she bravely decides to forge her own path in life - to "close her eyes and leap".
The song has become a powerful anthem for people from all different walks of life and this episode tells some of their stories.
Edward Pierce the Broadway set designer of Wicked knows the song through and through as he worked on the sequence where Elphaba takes flight and begins Defying Gravity.  It wasn't until he became severely ill with Covid that the song took on a different meaning.  While he was in an induced coma on a ventilator a nurse sang and hummed Defying Gravity to him.  He believes that song played more than a minor role in his recovery. That nurse was singer Felicia Temple who had featured on The Voice America singing talent show performing Defying Gravity. When her musical career was cut short by lockdown in March 2020 she returned to nursing and when she found herself at the bedside of a Broadway set designer there was only one song that came to mind.  But it has a personal resonance for her too as she went onto that TV show to sing the song one year on from her own illness with cancer and was resolute that as the song goes 'nothing was ever going to bring me down'.
The first British singer to play the role of Elphaba in the West End and Broadway is Kerry Ellis.  She recounts how that song has given her so much in life and how grateful she is to its strong message of courage.
Kath Pierce formerly of the Manchester Proud Choir outlines why Defying Gravity is such an important song to the LGTBQ community and why the choir and members of the public took to the trams and streets of Manchester one November evening in defiance of a violent attack against two young gay men. They'd been on their way home on the tram singing songs from Wicked after a night out.  Hundreds of people assembled in the city centre and sang Defying Gravity as a protest against the hate crime.
Musicologist Mel Spencer talks us through the genius of composer Stephen Schwartz's song and how it harks back to Somewhere Over The Rainbow as well as to Wagner!

Producer: Maggie Ayre

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