{"id":6537,"date":"2019-07-22T14:41:03","date_gmt":"2019-07-22T18:41:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/?p=6537"},"modified":"2025-03-28T12:55:19","modified_gmt":"2025-03-28T16:55:19","slug":"beyonce-spirit-hits-decoded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/beyonce-spirit-hits-decoded\/","title":{"rendered":"3 qualities of Beyonc\u00e9&#8217;s &#8220;SPIRIT&#8221; that make it perfect for The Lion King | Hits Decoded"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><em> The Lion King<\/em>\u2019s re-imagination has brought back a lot of the classic hits from the original movie.<\/h2>\n<p>That said, there&#8217;s one very notable new addition: Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s \u201cSPIRIT.\u201d The record was produced by Beyonc\u00e9, Ilya Salmanzadeh, and Labrinth. In this entry of <a href=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/tag\/hits-decoded\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Hits<\/em> <em>Decoded<\/em>,<\/a> let&#8217;s take a look at three qualities that allow the track to blend perfectly among the original movie&#8217;s hit songs.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Beyonc\u00e9 - SPIRIT (From Disney&#039;s &quot;The Lion King&quot; - Official Video)\" width=\"370\" height=\"208\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/civgUOommC8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>1. Call and response<\/h2>\n<p>One popular characteristic heard across many types of African music is a call and response, often found at the beginning of a piece. Music at its earliest stages was used for communication &#8211; a leader would call out a phrase (or play it on a drum) and the rest of the group would respond appropriately. The Swahili chant in the intro of &#8220;SPIRIT&#8221; uses call and response heavily, which makes it match the feeling of the original&#8217;s \u201cCircle of Life.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/Beyonce-spirit-lyrics\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The lyrics are as follows<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>Uishi kwa muda mrefu mfalme<\/em><br \/>\n<em>(Uishi kwa, uishi kwa)<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Uishi kwa muda mrefu mfalme<\/em><br \/>\n<em>(Uishi kwa, uishi kwa)<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>Long live king<\/em><br \/>\n<em>(Live for, live by)<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Long live king<\/em><br \/>\n<em>(Live for, live by)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The initial \u201ccall&#8221; vocals have some auto-tune added to them, which adds a modern touch to the song.<\/p>\n<h2>2. Lush background vocals<\/h2>\n<p>Another key characteristic that makes \u201cSPIRIT\u201d fit with the original soundtrack is the abundance of <a href=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/how-to-create-vocal-harmonies\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">vocal harmonies,<\/a> especially when the chorus hits around 1:10. The background choir shares the same lyrics as Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s lead line, and mostly the same rhythms. However, there&#8217;s a nice break during the second half of the phrase, where the two lines play off of each other. The background choir is also an authentic representation of many types of African music, as vocals and drums dominate a lot of the folk music throughout Africa.<\/p>\n<h2>3. An uplifting key change<\/h2>\n<p>There&#8217;s a key change at 3:31 where the song transposes up by a half step; this characteristic is found in a lot of musicals, and in many entries on the original soundtrack. By modulating the key from F major to F# major at the end of the song, Beyonc\u00e9 is able to get more energy out of the same chorus on its third go-around.<\/p>\n<p>Were there any characteristics that we missed that made \u201cSPIRIT\u201d fit so well with the original soundtrack? Let us know in the comments below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Let&#8217;s take a look at three qualities that allow Beyonc\u00e9&#8217;s &#8220;SPIRIT&#8221; to blend perfectly among The Lion King&#8217;s original hit songs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":6539,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1695,1692],"tags":[1640,1553],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>3 qualities of Beyonc\u00e9&#039;s &quot;SPIRIT&quot; that make it perfect for The Lion King | Hits Decoded - Blog | Splice<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Let&#039;s take a look at three qualities that allow Beyonc\u00e9&#039;s &quot;SPIRIT&quot; to blend perfectly among The Lion King&#039;s original hit songs.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/beyonce-spirit-hits-decoded\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"3 qualities of Beyonc\u00e9&#039;s &quot;SPIRIT&quot; that make it perfect for The Lion King | Hits Decoded - Blog | Splice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Let&#039;s take a look at three qualities that allow Beyonc\u00e9&#039;s &quot;SPIRIT&quot; to blend perfectly among The Lion King&#039;s original hit songs.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/beyonce-spirit-hits-decoded\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Blog | Splice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Splice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-07-22T18:41:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-28T16:55:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Hits-Decoded-blog-Spirit-072319.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nick Chen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@splice\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@splice\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nick Chen\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/beyonce-spirit-hits-decoded\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/beyonce-spirit-hits-decoded\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Nick Chen\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/006da68db2cca36c1730e68e67130d39\"},\"headline\":\"3 qualities of Beyonc\u00e9&#8217;s &#8220;SPIRIT&#8221; 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