Moana (soundtrack)

For the soundtrack, Disney wanted to combine traditional South Pacific culture with pop and Broadway sensibilities, which led to the hiring of Broadway playwright, songwriter and composer Lin-Manuel Miranda, composer Mark Mancina and Tokelauan singer-songwriter Opetaia Foaʻi. The first song they completed was "We Know the Way", which Foa'i began after his first meeting with Disney in December 2013. The trio worked together in New Zealand and in Los Angeles. At the same time, Miranda was also developing and starring in the Broadway musical Hamilton, which meant he was able to recruit Hamilton stars Phillipa Soo, Christopher Jackson, and Renée Elise Goldsberry as well as In The Heights star Marcy Harriell to help him record demos of his songs. Since Hamilton had not yet premiered on Broadway at the time Disney Animation was hiring a songwriter, Miranda was still relatively unknown and had to audition for Moana. The day he got the job was the same day he learned he was going to become a father. Mancina composed the score and produced both the score and the songs. In addition to guitars and strings, the score features some vocals in Polynesian languages, as well as Polynesian percussion, woodwinds made from bamboo from the South Pacific, and traditional hide-covered Tyka drums. ==Commercial performance==

"How Far I'll Go" appears during the film performed by actress Auliʻi Cravalho, and during the end credits performed by Canadian singer-songwriter Alessia Cara. A music video for Cara's version of the song was released on November 3, 2016. It reached number 88 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the week of December 17, 2016. South African singer Lira and Filipino singer Janella Salvador recorded two English-language versions of "How Far I'll Go" that played over the end credits on the South African and Filipino release of the film, while Indonesian singer Maudy Ayunda and Malaysian singer Ayda Jebat recorded their own versions of the song respectively in Indonesian and Malaysian language. Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jordan Fisher sing a duet on "You're Welcome", which plays over the end credits. The song as performed by Dwayne Johnson appears in the film. Johnson's version of "You're Welcome" peaked at number 83 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the week of December 17, 2016. The soundtrack also features Jemaine Clement, who voices the coconut crab Tamatoa. The album sold 509,000 copies in the United States by April 2017, making it the third soundtrack to surpass a half-million in sales that year after Suicide Squad and Trolls. Moana sold 709,000 copies and earned 1,254,000 album-equivalents, finishing as the country's fifth-best-selling album of the year and had its ninth largest overall album consumption. The album set a record for most weeks at No. 1 on Billboard Soundtracks Chart, with 61 weeks in total by October 23, 2021. ==Critical reception==

Pablo Ruiz of Rotoscopers called Lin-Manuel Miranda "the perfect choice" to write the songs. He further wrote: "The result, accompanied by the score by Mark Mancina, is absolutely delightful. It might take some people a while to get used to the new rhythms, since this is not as Broadway-ish as Frozen, but I firmly believe we will all be singing these tunes for years and years to come." ==Accolades==

At the 60th Annual Grammy Awards, "How Far I'll Go" won the Best Song Written For Visual Media. At the 74th Golden Globe Awards, it was nominated for Best Original Song. It also received a nomination for Best Original Song at the 89th Academy Awards. ==In popular culture==

During an episode of WWE Raw on March 15, 2024, Maui's voice actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnsonhaving returned to his part-time professional wrestling career and revived his villainous "Hollywood Rock" persona for the first time since 2003vowed to injure Cody Rhodes and threatened Rhodes' mother by singing a line from the chorus of "You're Welcome" into the camera in a sinister fashion. ==Track listing==

Weekly charts Year-end charts Decade-end charts Tracks ==Certifications==