Cynthia Erivo Reveals How 'Defying Gravity' From 'Wicked' Changed Her Life: 'I Had No Idea It Would Do That'
Cynthia Erivo‘s creative choices in Wicked have surely paid off.
If you didn’t know, Wicked: Part 1 ends with Elphaba singing “Defying Gravity,” a song that ends with an iconic battle-cry note. However, in Cynthia‘s film version, she decided to revamp the signature note with a unique riff.
Recently, 38-year-old singer and actress talked about how making the moment her own impacted fan response to the film.
“It has completely changed my life. One, because people sing it to me randomly in the street when I’m going, when I’m leaving somewhere. If I’m signing or like I’m talking to people, I will often hear it just as I’m leaving. So someone will do it as I walk away. But like, who knew that people would fall in love with that?” Cynthia said while on “SiriusXM’s Sway in the Morning.”
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She also gave details on why she chose to sing the note differently from the original Broadway version.
“With that note, with how it sung because it really, at first I wanted to do it like the original. And when I did the musical director and the composer were like, ‘Okay, great. Now what’s your version?’ And when that version sort of happened and it was a natural thing. I just tried something and that felt really good. That has sort of reverberated,” she explained.
“I keep hearing it in different places. People keep doing it. There was a challenge on it. I had no idea that it would do that. And that song would do that. That people would connect to the song in that way. And I love that people keep trying to do this note, it’s kind of wonderful,” she added.
If you didn’t see, last month, Cynthia gave details about her physical transformation to play Elphaba.