Top 10 Frozen Songs

My son and I just got home after seeing Frozen II for the second time … sort of. We had to leave halfway through after a fire scare forced a building evacuation. (We got makeup tickets for a future date.)

I expected a big tantrum. After all, my son is just five, Elsa is his everything, and he knew he was going to miss out on some epic songs and moments. This wasn’t like the time we left the Broadway version of Frozen at intermission to catch a flight, telling him that the musical ends after Let It Go. We weren’t missing “the unknown” this time.

For whatever reason, though, the tantrum never came. He thought the fire alarm was fun, calling back to a drill he did earlier this year in kindergarten. We walked out peacefully and drove home, listening to the movie’s soundtrack in the car. All in all, it was a great father-son outing.

Will we use our make-up tickets to see Frozen II a second-and-a-half time? Unclear. I think the movie is great, and Damon agrees, but ultimately the power of the movie and the franchise as a whole manifests best in its stellar music.

After seeing Frozen II the first time, I put together a list of my top ten tracks from the movies and the musical. Upon a second-ish viewing, I’m happy with where I landed, so it’s time to count down! Apologies in advance to any Olaf fans - neither of his songs made the list.

Spoilers below! (As is a Spotify playlist of all ten in order)

10. Lost in the Woods (Frozen II, Kristoff & Sven)

During my first viewing, I was annoyed when this song came on. I felt like it was interrupting the movie’s momentum with an extended sequence of the Kristoff bumbling proposal C-plot.

Upon repeat listens, however, I began to really appreciate the callback to the amazing cheesy love ballads from the 80s and 90s. And Sven’s an incredible backup singer.

9. All Is Found (Frozen II, Queen Iduna)

The expository songs in the franchise foreshadow the plots in plain sight. The first movie’s Frozen Heart talked about love and fear in the context of a frozen heart, and the second movie’s All Is Found talks about water having memory, diving deep, finding your mother, and finding yourself after losing everything. I mean, it’s all right there!

All Is Found makes the list by virtue of being hauntingly beautiful and setting up a late title card in style.

8. Hans of the Southern Isles Reprise (Frozen the Musical, Hans)

You bet a couple of originals from the musical are making this list!

Broadway Hans is a bit more of an apparent bumbler than the movie’s suave ladies man, and as such he doesn’t really display any heroic tendencies until this song, right after winter hits Arendelle. Of course he turns out to be a fraud in the end, but it doesn’t make this song any less epic.

7. The Next Right Thing (Frozen II, Anna)

Anna’s broken, and it’s hard to watch. After everything she’s been through - being pushed away by her sister over and over again, losing her parents, surviving a frozen heart, having an ex who left her to die - she finally loses her spirit. Olaf’s dead, Elsa’s gone, and Anna has no one.

The song starts off meandering as Anna is trying to find a guiding light. She first recovers her poise, resets, and eventually finds her voice, deciding to focus on small steps and progress until she finds her footing and a new north star. As with any good Frozen song, the music mirrors her emotional path, and it’s fantastic.

6. Love Is an Open Door (Frozen, Anna & Hans)

This is the cutest Disney love song of all time.

5. Monster (Frozen the Musical, Elsa)

Elsa finally makes the list! It took long enough, and yeah, she’s going to be in every song the rest of the way.

This song gets really dark, with Elsa wondering aloud if she is truly the villain of this story and even considering suicide to end the winter storm she’s caused. Ultimately, since she isn’t sure if that will unfreeze Arendelle, she fights for her survival.

4. Into the Unknown (Frozen II, Elsa)

Into the Unknown is getting all of the Let It Go parallels and treatment, from its position in the movie to its prominence in the marketing material to the release of a multi-language cut on YouTube:

While it’s not as catchy as Let It Go, it’s fun, stylish, and it sets the plot of Frozen II in motion in style.

3. For the First Time in Forever (Frozen, Anna & Elsa)

I love Anna’s exuberance to open this song, and I love how it foils Elsa’s restraint. It builds into an epic dueling duet between Anna’s desire for companionship and Elsa’s fear of being discovered, resolved later on during an epic failure at Elsa’s coronation.

It’s also certainly my favorite song ever that has the word “gassy” in it.

2. Show Yourself (Frozen II, Elsa)

Wow.

Elsa’s quest for self-discovery opens with cautious inquisitiveness, as she asks the voice calling to her to show herself. As she literally goes deeper into the mystery, her confidence builds, and she escalates her asks to demands. Finally, she discovers that the voice has been her mother all along, and an amazing embedded reprise of All Is Found kicks in. “I am FOUND!”

What a build, what a reveal, what a moment. Show Yourself is the real successor to the Let It Go legacy.

1. Let It Go (Frozen, Elsa)

At my old website, I named Let It Go my favorite Disney song of all time. I wrote back then:

I always go back to the first time I saw it in the theater. The entire sequence was the only time I can remember being in awe during a Disney film as an adult, as we see a character reach self-actualization after a lifetime of repression with a song that channels that energy perfectly. When Idina Manzel nails the "let the storm rage ON!" capper, we knew we'd seen something special.

There's a reason this song is everywhere and has had a chance for you to get sick of it. It's incredible.

I stand by it. Show Yourself is a worthy contender, but Let It Go is still number one.

Thanks for reading, and here’s to the next Frozen movie!

Playlist of all ten songs: