This song may not strike some of us as Christmas music and the lyrics are not religious in nature, but in 2016 it was second behind Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas is You on a list of all-time best selling Christmas or holiday period songs. The song comes from the 2013 Disney animated film Frozen and it very nearly did not make its way into the film as the company considered it too sad. 

Disney studio employees thought otherwise and it was rescued! It is very much in the Disney musical films mould and follows on very much in style from Alan Menken’s songs in The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast etc. However, this song is rather an ‘ear worm’ which bears acute similarities to other songs such as Papa Can You Hear Me? From Yentl and it reminds me – especially rhythmically – of the song ‘How are Things in Glocca Morra?’ From the film Finian’s Rainbow!

The song is a dialogue between two characters in the film Frozen; princess sisters Elsa and Anna. Elsa has harmed Anna through her powers to create and control snow and ice and as a result Elsa locks herself in her bedroom and the 5 year old Anna tries to persuade her older sister to come out. What is quite interesting though is that the second and third verses convey Anna’s efforts to try to get her to come out at further different stages in their lives.

In the first verse, we hear Anna as a child; in the second verse she is singing a few years older and in the third verse she is singing as a young adult but this time after the death of their parents at sea in a storm whilst on a journey to try to find a solution to the fairly problematic situation of Elsa having magic powers.

To quote Forbes magazine, “richness and a subtle sadness to the core relationship between Anna and Elsa, of so much time lost to fear, self-doubt, and some questionable parenting at a key juncture” are portrayed in this song which is why it was considered so sad.