Lin Manuel-Miranda opens up about writing seven songs for himself Mufasa: The Lion Kingthe upcoming prequel to the beloved Disney animated classic.
The Grammy-winning artist stopped by for a visit The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallonwhere he discussed his upcoming Broadway show Give it your all: a comedy about loverecent concept album warrior and mufasaamong others.
Miranda explained to the late-night host that he was working on both the concept album and the music for the Disney movie at the same time, and sometimes, they overlap.
“Whenever Mufasa started cursing, I thought, ‘That’s wrong,'” he said. In fact, to be honest, I think it’s working mufasa raised the bar for me because I knew I was walking into a lion king. That original album was like a passionate, no-skip album.
He continued: “There are only five songs. Everyone forgets that the original movie only had five songs. ‘Circle of Life’, ‘I Can’t Wait to Be King’, ‘Get Ready’, Hakuna Fucks Matata , “Can You Feel the Love Tonight?” I dive into every song in it. mufasa With a ‘this is an album not to be missed’ energy.
this hamilton Creator notes that when he was composing the music for the prequels, he didn’t have to listen lion king album because it’s so ingrained in people’s blood now. He also noted that he was excited to work with LEBO M, the South African producer and composer of the original film.
When Jimmy Fallon asked him if he prefers happy songs to ballads, he noted mufasahe had to write a “real ballad.”
“All the Disney characters I write are very much like strong heroines who don’t need men, but I have to be like one ballad,” Miranda said. “The other thing is, I remember reading someone online who said, ‘Lin doesn’t write villain songs.'” Like Michael Jordan, I took that personally. I wrote a douchebag Mads Mikkelsen sang this song because he’s the villain in the movie and he’s scary.
Mufasa: The Lion King Releases December 20th.
