Lin-Manuel Miranda Shows Moana a Dazzling Vision in 'We Know the Way': Watch Full Clip
Songwriter and performer Lin-Manuel Miranda, best known for Broadway blockbuster Hamilton, gives a different kind of history lesson in “We Know the Way,” the show-stopping number from Disney’s animated blockbuster Moana that’s now spotlighted in an online clip (watch it above).
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In the movie, the song accompanies the moment when its heroine Moana discovers that her secluded island nation was once home to a culture of sea voyagers. When she pounds an ancient drum, Moana (voiced by Hawaiian actress Auli’i Cravalho) sees an exhilarating vision of her ancestors on the water. “We Know the Way” is sung by Miranda and Opetaia Foa’i, who co-wrote the film’s songs along with composer Mark Mancina.
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In an interview with Deadline, Miranda said that “We Know the Way” was the song that best represents the collaboration between Moana‘s three songwriters. “That’s the first song we wrote for the movie,” said Miranda. “We’re all in New Zealand, we’re all absorbing this culture, and Opetaia brought it in. He brought in the melody and the lyrics, but the lyrics were in [the Polynesian language] Tokelauan, and so, we talked about what it could mean and whether this could be the ancestor song. So, I started writing English lyrics to sort of the same melody, and then Mark came in and started playing some alternate chords and playing with that, and then I came up with the ‘We are explorers,’ with sort of a counter-melody to Ope’s melody.”
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“We Know the Way” is one of three Moana songs that Disney is putting forward for awards consideration, along with the ballad “How Far I’ll Go” (sung by Cravalho) and the comic song “You’re Welcome” (sung by Dwayne Johnson as the demigod Maui). Watch the full clip of “You’re Welcome” below.
Dwayne Johnson Sings ‘You’re Welcome’ in ‘Moana’: Watch the full scene: