Colors of the Wind - A song about harmony and acceptance
Colors of the Wind was a song written by Alan Menken, composer, and Stephen Schwartz, lyricist, in 1995. It was featured as the theme song for the very successful Disney animated film, Pocahontas. Colors of the Wind also won an Oscar in 1995 for best song as well. It also won a Golden Globe in that very same category, best song, along with a Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Movie. Find more information about it on this page on this site!
The basis of Colors of the Wind is a poetic presentation of the viewpoint that Native Americans have that view earth as a living entity where mankind is created to every thing in nature in every way.
Colors of the Wind was performed in the movie by Judy Kuhn, who was the singing voice for Pocahontas. The very famous singer and actress Vanessa Williams also recorded the version for the end credits of the movie which was released as a single and went on to become one of the Vanessa Williams biggest hits in 1995. It rivaled other songs at the time such as Any Man of Mine by Shania Twain, Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me by U2, and Fantasy by Mariah Carey. Vanessa Williams’ version of Colors of the Wind went on to earn itself a gold single because it went to the top and sold over 500,000 copies. Colors of the Wind has since been covered by other artists including Ashanti, Edyta Gorniak (who sang it for the Polish version of the movie Pocahontas), Christy Carlson Romano, and the artist Arturo Sandoval.
In the song Colors of the Wind, Pocahontas tries to explain to John Smith about the amazing wonders of earth and nature and how the spirit is included within all things that are living. Pocahontas tries to encourage John Smith not to think of those things as things he can conquer on his own, but more as beings that should be respected and that people should live with in harmony. Pocahontas also stressed the importance to accept human beings who may appear to be different in their physical appearance and culture and to try and learn from them.
A little bit of example from the song better explains how beautifully the song was written. The first line of Colors of the Wind tells about the world who is crying to the blue corn moon. The third line tells of singing with the voices of the mountains and the chorus concludes it with an image of painting with colors of the wind.