Popular (Wicked song)

This article is about the song from the musical Wicked. For the Nada Surf song, see Popular (Nada Surf song). For the The Veronicas song, see Popular (The Veronicas song).

"Popular" is a song from the Tony Award-winning musical Wicked. It is performed by the Broadway company's original Glinda, Kristin Chenoweth on the original Broadway cast recording. The song is about a popular girl (Galinda) trying to help her unpopular roommate (Elphaba) become more likeable.

Background and inspiration

"Popular" was written by the composer Steven Schwartz for the first act of the 2003 musical Wicked. It is sung by the character Galinda. While writing the song, Schwartz imagined one of "those cheerleaders" while writing the song - "She was the most popular girl at school, and she always went out with the captain of the football team. She was always the homecoming queen, blond with a perky nose - the whole thing." Schwartz has compared the song to the film Clueless.

Composition

"It's [the song] meant to be as shallow as possible. And I think that's why people enjoy it, because it's real funny in that way. But it's also political. Glinda refers to the fact that politicians and heads of state get by not because thy're particularly smart, but because people like to hang out with them."

—Stephen Schwartz talking about "Popular"

In the song "Popular," Galinda attempts to get Elphaba, the future Wicked Witch of the West, to conform to the accepted ideas of beauty and popularity. Schwartz described the lyrics as "empty calories" and shallow. The composition of the song is a more bubblegum sound than the rest of the musical, with Beatles influences. Galinda also yodels on the word "popular" because Schwartz was thinking of Oklahoman Kristin Chenoweth while writing the song.