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Every song from Wicked, ranked

In honour of the musical celebrating its 18th birthday on the West End, we’ve ranked every song from the show


Even if you’ve never seen Wicked, chances are you’ve heard ‘Defying Gravity’ belted out at karaoke by somebody’s work friend. The huge Act One closer is one of the most popular – and most commonly butchered – musical theatre solos of all time, but Wicked is packed with plenty more musical moments deserving of recognition. There’s a reason that the musical just celebrated its 18th year in the West End, after all.

With Wicked heading for a two decade run and the new film adaptation set to hit cinemas at the end of the year, we decided it was a perfect time to revisit the soundtrack. Here’s our definitive ranking of every song from Wicked, excluding reprises. Spoiler: when it comes to first place, we won’t be (ahem) defying any expectations.

17. ‘March Of The Witch Hunters’

Something has to come last, and it’s probably not a reach to say that this short story-driving track isn’t anyone’s favourite. It’s still a tense, atmospheric piece of music though, and the chorus get some wonderfully dramatic harmonies.

16. ‘Dear Old Shiz’

The short and sweet school anthem sets up Glinda and Elphaba’s first meeting. It’s only a few lines long, but beautifully arranged, with a fun vocal flourish for Glinda.

15. ‘A Sentimental Man’

A short solo from the Wizard, ‘A Sentimental Man’ acts as the springboard for Elphaba’s ‘Defying Gravity’ moment. It’s not too notable otherwise, apart from a brave bid to rhyme ‘ascent’ with ‘parental’.

14. ‘Something Bad’

‘Something Bad’ leans into the tone of Gregory Maguire’s original novel, both whimsical and unsettling. Doctor Dillamond relays his concerns about the wellbeing of fellow animal professors through Dr Seuss-esque rhymes with a darkly political message behind them, his powers of speech slipping away from him as he goes. It’s succinctly delivered, but packs less sparkle than the rest of the soundtrack.

13. ‘Wonderful’

The Wizard’s jaunty sermon on the advantages of public adoration takes inspiration from classic music hall numbers, cementing his identity as a performer rather than a true leader. He offers Elphaba a glimpse at the life that could be hers if she gives up her principles – before Elphaba ultimately decides that she can’t desert the path she’s on. It’s a nice ode to the original Wiz and a neat callback to ‘The Wizard And I’, but doesn’t reach the heights we’ll eventually soar to.

12. ‘One Short Day’

Glinda and Elphaba’s journey to the gleaming emerald city acts as the musical’s last moment of true joy, before it all starts to go rapidly downhill. The back and forth between the two of them celebrates their against-the-odds friendship, and the Wizard also gets his characteristic music hall moment. It also includes possibly the best use of the phrase ‘hoi polloi’ in musical theatre history.

11.  ‘Thank Goodness’

Act Two’s complex opener has a few great elements, but Glinda’s repeated insistence that she “couldn’t be happier” as she contemplates the cost of what she’s achieved is probably the standout. There’s a lot of slick exposition packed into these six and a half minutes, including a barrage of conspiracy theories surrounding the Wicked Witch of the West and a fantastic climactic realisation for Glinda.

10. ‘No One Mourns The Wicked’

Wicked doesn’t have an overture in the traditional sense, but the intro to ‘No One Mourns The Wicked’ serves a similar purpose, a wonderful piece of music that sets the tone for the rest of the show and establishes that crucial balance between the dark and the magical. The rest of the opening number takes us through a couple of different scenes, setting up Elphaba’s backstory and hinting that our preconceived ideas are about to be challenged. The show’s unique concept makes setting the scene no easy task, and it’s accomplished with aplomb in this opener.

9. ‘No Good Deed’

If ‘Defying Gravity’ didn’t exist, Elphaba would still be spoilt for excellent solos. She belts this one out as she searches frantically for a way to save Fiyero, the tension building via a blood-pumping cocktail of strings and brass. It’s a fantastic character moment and spirals off in multiple directions as Elphaba attempts to collect her various strings of thought – the messiness is intentional and excellent, but allows her other solos to creep ahead of it in this ranking.

8. ‘I’m Not That Girl’

An uncharacteristically gentle moment on the soundtrack, ‘I’m Not That Girl’ sees Elphaba dreaming of life in Glinda’s shoes. Wicked loves a lush, dramatic orchestration, but ‘I’m Not That Girl’ manages to stand out for its use of restraint, so sweetly delivered that it could easily be reworked into a piece of confessional bedroom pop, but far from out of place in a show that wears its heart on its sleeve.

7. ‘Dancing Through Life’

The Fiyero-led dance number is a lesson in optimistic nihilism, and an excellent one at that, deftly setting up not only his character development but a number of other plot points. ‘Dancing Through Life’ has some of the best lyricism in the show; dark sentiments disguised behind a cheerful vacancy. The over-the-top luster and sparkle of the instrumentations elevate it all further – pretty on the surface, but doing hard narrative work underneath.

6. ‘As Long As You’re Mine’

A musical theatre duet that, even for being part of the Wicked soundtrack, doesn’t get its dues. ‘As Long As You’re Mine’ fits so seamlessly into Wicked sonically and lyrically – beautiful but dark, stirring but ominous – and also manages to stand alone as a love song, no context needed. The smooth foreshadowing of Fiyero’s fate and their tongue-in-cheek spoken exchange at the end are both wonderful details. It’s a tough fight for those top five positions, and this one misses out by a very, very narrow margin.

5. ‘The Wizard And I’

There’s something infectious about ‘The Wizard And I’. Perhaps it’s because it’s the first moment we see Elphaba’s defenses drop, or perhaps we project onto it our own memories of student ambition. Regardless, it’s a hard one not to enjoy, full of youthful exuberance and fun wordplay (“Since folks here to an absurd degree/Seem fixated on your verdigris”) and Elphaba’s big vocal moments give us a taste of what’s ahead.

4. ‘What Is This Feeling?’

Wicked does comedy excellently, and whilst ‘What Is This Feeling?’ isn’t quite the show’s comic high point (see the next entry on our list for that) it’s a confident runner up. Elphaba and Glinda’s respective vocal lines do a wonderful job establishing where the two characters stand in relation to each other, giving the actors plenty to play with. Wicked is a show built more from excellent solos and duets than unforgettable chorus numbers, but the ensemble do have an important role here, building the track to its joyfully disharmonious conclusion.

3. ‘Popular’

Wicked contains two of the best musical theatre solos ever written; this is the second. ‘Popular’ is not only a dream piece of comedy for any actress playing Glinda, but a ridiculously catchy and joyful track. There’s a ton of playful lyricism across the Wicked soundtrack, but ‘Popular’ contains some of the show’s most accomplished wordplay – Glinda continually manages to surprise us with her rhymes, sermonising on popularity to the most ridiculously bright and upbeat instrumental imaginable. Her character development is crucial and ultimately welcome, but it’s hard not to love this version of her.

2. ‘For Good’

Elphaba and Glinda’s closing duet is a singularly beautiful piece of music. Their harmony lines are intricately designed, each swapping in and out of the other’s voice as they give voice to the endurance of their connection and the irrevocable impact they’ve had on each other’s lives, and the delicate keys and shimmering strings make it all sound magical. It’s the lyricism that really packs a punch here, though. Like so many of Wicked’s best moments, ‘For Good’ doesn’t need context to be understood, but for audiences hearing it in the context of the show it gets right to the heart of the story in two simply and perfectly phrased lines – “Who can say if I’ve been changed for the better/But, because I knew you, I have been changed for good”.

1. ‘Defying Gravity’

There’s not much to say about ‘Defying Gravity’ that hasn’t already been said, except that it isn’t overpraised. An Act One closer that doesn’t sound quite like anything else, and so amazingly climactic that it forced Jonathan Chu to split his film adaptation in two because when Elphaba sings that final riff, you can’t do much else other than roll credits. It’s lyrically as strong as the rest of the show but not an especial standout, but the melody and instrumentation take it far higher than any other number – what other chorus in musical theatre captures quite that same sound? The especial beauty of ‘Defying Gravity’ is in the fact that it takes a formidable vocalist to sing it. If it’s going to be done, it has to be done to excellence.


Wicked is playing at the Victoria Apollo Theatre – find tickets here