My Lion King Forum

Hey! I decided to make a poll about your fav songs on TLKoB soundtrack.

Shadowland as it tells more of my fursona and what Nala had to face under Scars terror.

Shadowland, definitely

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The Madness of King Scar, Shadowland, and Endless Night are unquestioningly my favorites. I've never had the pleasure (or the cash) to actually see the musical, but I am too much of a TLK fan not to listen to the soundtrack. It's all beautiful and one of the most amazing experiences of my life was being in an airplane, looking out the window at the world growing smaller as we took off, listening to Circle of Life from the Broadway show. It's pretty intense. In spite of that awesome experience, I can't help preferring the other three simply because I love character development and I love dark songs.

The Madness of King Scar is so well done and really conveys a sense of insanity that's absolutely brilliant. Shadowland and Endless Night both really capture Nala's and Simba's sorrow as well as their hope for a better future. They're just jaw-droppingly good.

For me it's a tie between Endless Night and Shadowland. But Shadowland gives me more goosebumps than Endless Night <3

I really love Endless night, it sounds great and is easy to play on the guitar. Now shadowland on the other hand is also really neat and i like it alot but i prefer the "Rythm of the Pridelands" version over the musical one.

really can't decide between Lioness Hunt, Grasslands Chant, and One by One! those are all amazing.

So hard to choose... "One by One" is definitely up there though, in part because in the genius of this franchise the lyrics have next to nothing to do with the story itself if you know the Zulu translation (http://www.lionking.org/lyrics/OBCR/OneByOne.html) -- I listen to a lot of South African music and spent a couple summers there, so I've managed to pick up a little Zulu -- which is literally a black pride song that roughly translates to something like "This brown color is my shining armor and I'm proud of it".

(In fact, it's been covered by various artists from the country, including Hugh Masekela (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4F6hH_2y7I), whose "Grazing in the Grass" was actually covered by Raven-Symone for The Lion King 1 1/2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUflTWPL7Cs. I'm going on a long tangent here, but I really hope that Masekela gets involved in the music for the remake; I'd die...)

Keeping in mind that Lebo M. and the rest of the S. Africans involved were effectively exiles from their home country when The Lion King was in production, it makes their musical numbers that much more poignant because most of the Zulu, Xhosa, and other S. African lyrics in the franchise connect the lions' story to that of South Africa at the time, with Scar and the hyenas being a stand-in for the Apartheid government, and Simba and Nala were effectively the exiles forced to escape and find help to overthrow the oppressors who'd taken over their homelands. I just think that's part of what makes The Lion King so powerful (both the film an the stage version); it was, in a way, a vehicle for political protest in a real-life fight for liberation, whether Disney and its Western audiences actually knew/know it or not.

They are all great, it is really hard to pick a favorite, but The Circle of Life first and King of Pride Rock in second place, make their way to the top of the list for me.

If we talk about the songs that were not in the original movie, I think that He lives in you (Lebo M, Mark Mancina and Jay Rifkin) is the one I like the most, and the scene in the show was really fascinating. The second place would go to Shadowland (Lebo, Hans Zimmer and Mancina). Lioness hunt (Lebo), Madness of King Scar (Elton John and Tim Rice) and Endless Night (Lebo, Zimmer, Mancina, Julie Taylor) are also on the top five.