Ranking Every Song From Both ‘Wicked’ Films, From Worst to Best

Songs like “A Sentimental Man” are a staple in musical theater; brief soliloquies from tertiary characters meant to inch the plot slightly forward or develop our protagonists’ character just a little bit further. Yet, there is a reason why comedian Sarah Smallwood Parsons referred to this song lovingly as “That Song in Every Musical That No One Likes.” Jeff Goldblum doesn’t add much (other than his own signature quirks), to this penultimate track, making “Sentimental Man” still the most skippable song in Wicked. Unless you’re going for a full listen-through of the soundtrack, you’d be forgiven for moving right past this one to get to the big finale number.

While there is plenty in Act II of the stage version of Wicked that could use some fleshing out, I’m not sure that making “Every Day More Wicked” its own standalone song is a necessary bit of development. What was originally a 60-second opening to “Thank Goodness” is now, in the film version, a much more bloated status update, revealing where all of our characters have wound up in the years since the events of the first film. Both Grande and Erivo get small moments to shine here, but ultimately, “Every Day More Wicked” feels like a “where are they now” segment that does a lot of telling rather than showing.

“Something Bad” isn’t bad per se, it just commits a mortal sin in the world of movies, musicals and movie musicals; it’s boring. With very little time to establish an important bit of plot for the story, Peter Dinklage and Cynthia Erivo do what they can to give this odd dirge some life, with the additional dialogue to underline the impending fascism of Oz doing important heavy-lifting here. The musical steps taken to underline the horror of Dillamond’s bleating “baaaaaad” certainly gives the song a grim undertone the original never quite had — but that doesn’t make “Something Bad” into something all that good, either.

Where “Dear Old Shiz” shares the same problem with tracks like “Something Bad” or “A Sentimental Man,” the sheer technique of what’s being sung here gives it just the slightest leg up. “Dear Old Shiz” gives the ensemble of Wicked a chance to show off their best choral vocals, even if in the grand scheme of things, it’s not a vital (or all that interesting) track to the overall soundtrack.

While “One Short Day” didn’t really need any additional bloat (it’s meant to be a “short” day, after all), there are exactly two reasons why we’re happy to see this expansion on the Broadway show’s late act set piece — and their names are Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth. It seemed inevitable that the original Elphaba and Glinda would appear in some capacity in the film, and it’s genuinely nice to hear them singing together again, even if what they’re singing is clunky exposition that’s not ultimately necessary for the film. Chenoweth’s dizzying coloratura and Menzel’s reprise of her iconic battle cry will make you just giddy enough to overlook the deeply unnecessary additions to this otherwise good song.

Ethan Slater is the saving grace of “March of the Witch Hunters.” The actor’s performance of Boq’s sheer rage at being transformed into a metallic woodsman gives the song its thrumming heart, and Slater makes a meal out of his performance here. Right when the story needs it, “March of the Witch Hunters” gives a frenetic shot of adrenaline, even when the song still feels like a cuttable piece of the overall film duology.

There’s plenty that “The Girl in the Bubble” has going for it, starting with an emotionally complicated performance from Ariana Grande. Her shell-shocked rendition of Schwartz’s brand new song for For Good manages to break through in an deeply affecting way, as she lets her voice break one moment and soar the next. The problem, though, is that this stirring ballad arrives at the moment when the plot is hurtling towards its dramatic conclusion. “Bubble” effectively halts that momentum for another plaintive ballad, when it feels like we could use a stirring anthem from Grande’s Glinda.

While the original version of this early Act II story song didn’t appear on the Broadway musical’s original soundtrack, “The Wicked Witch of the East” finally earned its own spot on the film’s album. It’s clear that the original Broadway version of the number needed an update with some of its ableist messaging about Nessa and her disability. We luckily get that in For Good, and Marissa Bode sings her solo beautifully here. But in rewriting much of the song, Nessa’s character gets stripped of her unbridled fury and instead gets it replaced with pity and sadness, which is a shame considering how fervent and passionate the song sounds when performed on stage.

The first of the two original songs that audiences get to see in Wicked: For Good, “No Place Like Home” gives Cynthia Erivo yet another opportunity to show off her impressive voice. She does just that, riffing and crooning her way through this stirring anthem. The song also manages to provide necessary context for Elphaba’s journey, allowing her to detail exactly how Oz has become the fascist, despotic land it is in For Good, and why she’s not ready to give up on saving the “promise” and “idea” of Oz (ringing any bells, yet?). Still, when held up to the rest of the existing songs of Wicked, “No Place Like Home” never quite manages to live up to the musical’s admittedly high standard.

Kudos to Cynthia Erivo for doing everything in her power to try and make “I’m Not That Girl” more than what it is — a bit of mid-Act I filler. Adding in stunning riffs and emotionally raw vocals to sell Elphaba’s self-doubting soliloquy, Erivo manages to lift the song just a little bit higher than Menzel’s original performance. But “I’m Not That Girl” is still … well, not quite that girl when compared to some of the soundtrack’s better offerings.

For all of the debate online about whether or not it was a good choice to rework “Wonderful” into a trio by adding Glinda to the song, I can now say with confidence that this was the absolute correct choice, not just from a plot perspective but from a musical one as well. Goldblum takes his moment in the spotlight seriously, and manages to give this jaunty jingle a bit of a lift with his breezy performance. But it’s Grande’s addition to “Wonderful” that makes the new version soar past the Broadway rendition, genuinely making you think that she just might be able to convince Elphaba to abandon her mission.

When it comes to the vocal performances from both Cynthia Erivo and especially Jonathan Bailey, we have no notes when it comes to “As Long As You’re Mine.” Both performers sound absolutely exquisite bouncing off one another, and make this romantic declaration all that much better when they’re belting together. But when it comes to their chemistry on-screen during the song, it did occasionally feel like there was something missing. This was one particular instance where a more direct focus on the passionate (and let’s be real, very sexy) staging from the musical would have benefitted “As Long As Your Mine” and For Good as a whole.

Never has this very brief Act II song sounded more soul-crushing than it does in Grande’s voice. In the verse-and-change that we get to hear from Glinda on this song, she’s practically unrecognizable from the bubbly, charming young woman we’ve come to expect. Here, Grande makes the character’s sorrow known in every word, as she reels from the loss of her husband and (at least for the moment) her closest friend.

A good movie musical takes the elements that worked from its source material and simply recreates them for the screen; a great movie musical takes those pieces and amplifies them for a new medium. While “What Is This Feeling?” occasionally falls into the former category, it often doubles down on the song’s built-in comedy to create gold (see Grande’s bratty “Yeah, well, my face is flushing” at the song’s outset as a prime example). Meanwhile, our leading ladies take their first opportunity to duet together and run with it, showing off the vocal chemistry that oozes out of their mutually petty performances in this high-spirited number.

Kicking things off with a celebratory opening number, “No One Mourns the Wicked” sets the tone for what’s to come throughout the rest of the soundtrack. Updated orchestrations make the song feel fresh, and Grande lets her octave-jumping soprano take control here, even though we wish she had leaned just a little bit further into Glinda’s more operatic side. “No One Mourns the Wicked” lovingly touches on the bombast and grandeur of the original, while never actively recreating it note-for-note.

Future movie musical directors, please take note: this is how you update a song for the screen. The new, poppy orchestrations from Schwartz on “Dancing Through Life” makes a decent track from the original stage musical absolutely sing in its movie version. That’s also in no small part thanks to a swoon-worthy performance from Jonathan Bailey, who blends his raw West End talent with his Bridgerton sex appeal to make his Prince Fiyero sway and sweep his way through the updated score. While Grande gets a few shining moments on the song, the other real song-stealers arrive in the form of Ethan Slater’s Boq and Marissa Bode’s Nessarose, as they make the most of their big musical moments in the film. Added together, every moving part makes this “Dancing Through Life” feel that much more “swankified” than its 2003 counterpart.

Kristin Chenoweth set the bar in outer space with her Tony-nominated performance as Glinda (Galinda, if you’re nasty) in the original Broadway version of Wicked — the bar was so high, in fact, that upon Grande’s casting announcement, die-hard fans of the musical were immediately skeptical of the pop singer’s ability to rise to the challenge. Let Grande’s rendition of “Popular” put those concerns to rest. Throughout this effervescent, makeover-montage number, Grande unleashes her comedy chops to give her Galinda the outsized vapidity needed to earnestly tell her new friend about the “personality dialysis” she plans to enact on her. Even the addition of a series of stratospheric key-changes in the song’s final moments only add to its maximalist vision of the soon-to-be-Good Witch’s earnest-yet-shallow attempt to build a bridge into Elphaba’s heart. It’s campy, it’s hilarious, and it’s just as technically impressive as you’d want it to be coming from Grande’s killer voice.

Even more than the vivacious Act I showstopper “Popular,” “Thank Goodness” has long been heralded by Wicked fans as the mark of a great Glinda. As one of the rare moments in the original show where the audience gets a closer look at Glinda’s inner turmoil, this shimmering ballad serves as challenge for any Glinda’s musical and acting chops. Ariana Grande takes that challenge and sprints full speed ahead with it, turning in not only a vocally impressive performance, but an impeccably acted one as well. As soon as she gets to the infamous second verse, Grande finds new shades and shapes to her Glinda, nailing the complicated place she finds herself in. By the time she gets to the stratospheric ending of the song, it’s clear that this Glinda is beyond good.

“The Wizard and I” has always been about building from nothing into everything, emotionally and musically speaking. Nowhere is that more evident than in Cynthia Erivo’s masterful performance, as she takes Elphaba’s small seed of hope and grows it into a mighty, elegant tree of joy in real time. Even just through audio, you can hear the exuberance coursing through Erivo’s character, as she subtly glides her way through the first few choruses, before opening her voice up to its full “unlimited” potential in its resplendent final verse. There are few songs on the “Wicked” soundtrack as hotly-anticipated as “The Wizard and I” (more on those later), and Erivo makes sure to both make Idina Menzel proud and to put her own, unique stamp on the track with this absolutely stunning rendition.

Much ado has been made over the friendship that has bloomed between Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo since they shot the Wicked films in throughout 2023. But nowhere has their connection as actresses and singers been more clearly exhibited than the seminal Act II closer “For Good.” Trading verses (and vocal parts) for this stunning song, both Grande and Erivo make good on the promise of the sequel’s title by wringing out every ounce of sadness, joy and love from each note. It’s clear when they sing the words “I have been changed for good” that they actually, 100% mean it.

Was there ever any doubt that Cynthia Erivo was going to blow the roof off of Elphaba’s beloved 11 o’clock number? Did anyone really think that “No Good Deed” wasn’t going to be a transcendent moment of rage and sadness and raw vocal talent? Of course not. From the moment she was cast as Elphaba, fans of the musical have been eagerly awaiting Erivo’s take on Act II’s heaviest song, and she does not disappoint. The actress somehow manages to make it sound as though her Elphaba has lost all control over her darkest impulses while still maintaining a hyper-precision over her own vocal performance. Flowing between quiet falsetto and bombastic belts with unbelievable dexterity, Erivo owns every second of “No Good Deed” and creates the most impactful moment of Wicked: For Good with just the sound of her clarion voice.

As one of the most transformational songs of 21st century musical theater, “Defying Gravity” is that song that, even if you haven’t seen Wicked, you probably know. Idina Menzel put every ounce of her soul into her soaring performance of the musical’s crown jewel, helping cement the song’s place among the great showstoppers in Broadway history. Thanks to that reputation, “Gravity” is the undisputed make-or-break moment for any Elphaba actress wishing to leave her mark on the role.

Cynthia Erivo doesn’t just put her stamp on the song — she sings it in a way that makes you feel as though you’re hearing it for the first time. The orchestrations have remained largely unchanged (save for a few expansions towards the end of the track), leaving Erivo to shatter through every expectation and skyrocket up her vocal range with awe-inspiring dexterity. Grande provides a necessary and vital assist here, both through her early-song acting and her gorgeous harmonies about halfway through. But it’s on the song’s infamous bridge that Erivo lets go, wringing out every note for all it is worth and letting the unbridled emotion of the moment flow through her voice. By the time she bellows out her own variation on the iconic battle cry, Erivo distinguishes her “Defying Gravity” as one of the single best movie musical interpretations of a song that this reviewer has ever heard, and one that more than surpasses the already astronomical expectations surrounding it.