# Moana (soundtrack)

Moana: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack to the 2016 Disney animated film of the same name. The soundtrack was released by Walt Disney Records on November 19, 2016. It features original songs written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Mark Mancina and Opetaia Foaʻi, with orchestrations provided by David Metzger, and with lyrics in English, Samoan, Tokelauan and Tuvaluan. The two-disc deluxe edition includes the score, which was composed by Mancina, as well as demos, outtakes and instrumental karaoke tracks. The record also produced two singles.
The album debuted on the Billboard 200 chart at number 16 and peaked at number 2, kept off the top spot by The Weeknd's Starboy. "How Far I'll Go" won the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media, and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

## Recording

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. He was overjoyed to meet directors John Musker and Ron Clements, where he told them they were the reason he became a songwriter, because the song "Under the Sea" in The Little Mermaid (1989) "blew [his] tiny 9-year-old mind".
The songs feature Foaʻi's New Zealand-based vocal group Te Vaka, as well as a choir from Fiji. The soundtrack contains seven original songs, two reprises, and two end-credits versions of songs from the film. 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.
According to Miranda, "Shiny" was inspired by the Flight of the Conchords' tribute to David Bowie at the Aspen Comedy Festival in 2004, as well as listening to Bowie's songs on a loop shortly after the singer's death in January 2016.

## 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 sings 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

Professional ratings :
| Review scores ||
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | |
Pable Ruiz of Rotascopers said "After the enormous success of Frozen, with its Broadway-type songs written by the married duo of Robert and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Disney decided to repeat the formula" [and use a Broadway star for the recording]. The Deluxe version includes demo songs and songs which were cut from the movie's theatric version.

## 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" Johnson—having returned to his part-time professional wrestling career and revived his villainous "Hollywood Rock" persona for the first time since 2003—vowed 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.

## Charts
### Tracks

Chart performance for tracks from Moana: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack :
| Track title | Performer(s) | Peak positions | Peak positions | Peak positions | Peak positions | Peak positions |
| Track title | Performer(s) | US | AUS | CAN | NZ | UK |
| "How Far I'll Go" | Auliʻi Cravalho | 41 | 49 | 58 | — | 55 |
| "How Far I'll Go" | Alessia Cara | 56 | 15 | 46 | 3 | 49 |
| "You're Welcome" | Dwayne Johnson | 65 | 77 | 85 | — | — |
| "We Know the Way" | Opetaia Foaʻi & Lin-Manuel Miranda | 93 | — | — | — | — |
| "Shiny" | Jemaine Clement | — | — | — | — | — |
| "Where You Are" | Christopher Jackson, Rachel House, Nicole Scherzinger, Auliʻi Cravalho & Louise Bush | — | — | — | — | — |
| "I Am Moana (Song of the Ancestors)" | Rachel House & Auliʻi Cravalho | — | — | — | — | — |
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart. |||||||

## Certifications

Certifications for Moana: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack :
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
| Australia (ARIA) | Platinum | 70,000$^‡$ |
| Austria (IFPI Austria) | Platinum | 15,000$^*$ |
| Canada (Music Canada) | 2× Platinum | 160,000$^‡$ |
| Denmark (IFPI Danmark) | Platinum | 20,000$^‡$ |
| France (SNEP) | Platinum | 100,000$^‡$ |
| Germany (BVMI) | Gold | 100,000$^‡$ |
| Italy (FIMI) | Gold | 25,000$^‡$ |
| Mexico (AMPROFON) | Gold | 30,000$^‡$ |
| New Zealand (RMNZ) | 4× Platinum | 60,000$^‡$ |
| Poland (ZPAV) | Platinum | 20,000$^‡$ |
| Singapore (RIAS) | Platinum | 10,000$^*$ |
| Sweden (GLF) | Gold | 15,000$^‡$ |
| United Kingdom (BPI) | 2× Platinum | 600,000$^‡$ |
| United States (RIAA) | 5× Platinum | 5,000,000$^‡$ |
| $^*$ Sales figures based on certification alone. $^‡$ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. |||