Analysis of "The Winner Takes It All" (Mamma Mia)
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- Опубліковано 8 вер 2024
- Today I'm analyzing the song "The Winner Takes It All" from the musical Mamma Mia, written, of course, by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus from supergroup ABBA.
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Hi! My name is Mateo, I'm a professional musical theatre composer, splitting my time between Toronto & NYC right now.
Every Thursday on this channel, I post a video analyzing the music theory behind some of the great Broadway musicals of all time! In the past, I've analyzed works by Sondheim, Jason Robert Brown, Pasek & Paul, Jeanine Tesori, and Stephen Schwartz, just to name a few.
Every Sunday on this channel, I post a video update of the progress I'm making on my writing projects, so you can follow along with the process as I create new musicals from scratch.
And every Tuesday on this channel, I post a video reacting to a performance by a star of musical theatre, discussing what makes them so amazing.
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Mateo is exactly right that the show is WAY underrated. Here's something from a piece I'm working on related to the show: the phrase "Voulez-vous" is supposed to be sexual (coucher avec moi ce soir) but in the show it's not "Do you want to have sex with me?" The song's theme is "Dad, will you walk me down the aisle"? But that's NOT linguistically what it means, since you'd use the informal "tu" with someone you know casually. Saying "vous" either implies a serious distance (unlikely given her character arc) or what I believe it is, which is a plural. The song is "DADS, will you walk me down the aisle?"
How the catalog is affects whether a show would work so much! Some musicians have songs that are abstract and do a great job of giving you a mood, but then doesn't really move the story forward. So it's a little like "let's pause the story for 3 minutes so we can sit in the mood of the conversation we just had, shall we?" And then there's the "hi, I'm the guy that have these five qualities and we joked about these two objects once when we were growing up, cool, can I sing this song that mentions those random words now?" problem. I find that musicians who have lyrics that already pleads and addresses the other person directly tend to make for better jukebox musicals. And you got to appreciate the arranger / orchestrator in helping it along too!
Amazing analysis! I'd honestly never have expected Mamma Mia to have as much musical depth as this. Are there more songs in the show with this much to dissect? Would love to see more of these if there are! Great video as always 😊
A really great analysis of a brilliant song from a seriously underestimated musical.
I'd suggest listening to this analysis and then watching a video of Mazz Murray (the West End's current Donna) and see it all performed by a stage powerhouse.
8:30 not to mention at the beginning of "Somewhere" from West Side Story
l Iove Mama Mia.