For the First Time in Forever
"For the First Time in Forever" is a song from Disney Animation Studios|Disney]'s 2013 animated feature film Frozen, with music and lyrics composed by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez. It is reprised later in the musical. Both versions are sung by American actresses Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel, who provide the speaking and the singing voices of Princess Anna and Queen Elsa, respectively. It reached the top 20 in Japan and South Korea.
Production
The song was composed relatively late in the production process in June 2013. This was only five months before the film's November 27, 2013 release date, when the filmmakers were scrambling to make the film work after being dissatisfied with the state of the film in February.The original version of the song contained a line about "I hope that I don't vomit in his face," which was deemed unacceptable by Disney as a reference to bodily fluids. The Lopezes' daughter, Katie, came up with the replacement line that ended up in the film: "I wanna stuff some chocolate in my face."
As for the reprise, there was originally a different confrontation lyric for the scene where Elsa strikes Anna with her powers entitled "Life's Too Short", which itself would have been reprised later when the sisters realize that life's too short to live life alone. As the characters evolved throughout the writing process, the song was deemed too vindictive and was instead replaced with a reprise of this song, to create a motif. "Life's Too Short" survives as a demo track on the Deluxe Edition of the movie soundtrack, and part of the melody was reused in Frozen Fever for the song "Making Today A Perfect Day".
When the necessity of a reprise dawned upon Anderson-Lopez, she wrote it in only about 20 minutes, and then successfully pitched it on her own to the Disney production team, as Lopez was already with the team in Los Angeles trying to fix "Do You [Want to Build a Snowman?]"
Synopsis
Original
In the first version, the song shows Anna's happiness and naive optimism when preparing for Elsa's coronation. During the third verse, Elsa sings a counterpoint melody, in which she expresses her fear of accidentally revealing her ice powers and her anxiety about opening the gates. During her solo, Elsa practices her role in the coronation on a box and candlestick in her room. Elsa orders the guards to open the gates, and Anna joyfully wanders down a causeway into the town against the flow of guests arriving. The song is cut off mid-note when Anna crashes into Hans's horse, and subsequently falls into a rowboat. This version goes up a half-step with each verse, starting in F major and ending in G major for the final.Musical
In the Broadway musical version of the song, a pair of lines in the first verse are changed due to staging limitations. Anna's line "Who knew we had eight thousand salad plates" is changed to "And there's two nice ladies helping me get dressed," and the line it rhymes with, "Finally they're opening up the gates!" is changed to "Coronation day is just the best!" In addition, after the last key change, there is an additional verse sung by a chorus of townspeople. Anna's run-in with Hans also involves them falling into Kristoff's ice-cart, rather than a rowboat.Frozen Jr.
In the Frozen Jr. version, the first verse uses the same lyrics as the original, barring one small line change in the second verse, where "A beautiful stranger, tall and fair" is changed to "A beautiful stranger, tall and rare". The fourth verse originally added by the full musical was also omitted. This version goes up a half-step from the first to second verse and a whole step from the second to third verse, progressing from E flat major to E major, ending in F major for the final. In addition, Elsa's solo bridge in the second verse uses the relative minor of E major - C# minor.Frozen Kids
In the Frozen Kids version, the song was further shortened, with the second verse being omitted.Reprise
In the reprise, Anna arrives at Elsa's ice palace to try to get her to unfreeze the kingdom, after she unknowingly sparked an eternal winter. She also wants Elsa to come back so that they can rekindle their once close relationship as sisters. However, Elsa refuses because she feels she cannot control her powers and that she is better off alone where she can't hurt anyone. As Anna tries to reason with her sister, Elsa's fear intensifies, resulting in her being covered in a blizzard of ice particles as a physical manifestation of her emotions, and she blocks out Anna's calming words. At one point, Elsa turns her back to her sister to form a two shot west, a blocking technique normally used in American soap operas. Finally, paranoid and lost, Elsa lets out a yell, and accidentally blasts Anna in the heart with the accumulated ice particles, thereby freezing it ; causing her to fall to the floor and Kristoff and Olaf to rush to her side, to make sure she is okay.The reprise uses a different melody from the original. Namely, Anna's parts are in a major key while Elsa's counterpoint is in a minor key, highlighting the opposite emotions the two characters have at this point in time. After Anna is inadvertently struck by Elsa's magic, the percussion includes part of the music from "Frozen Heart".
Musical version
In the reprise, Elsa tells Anna about how she hurt her with her magic when they were kids, and sings the bridge verse from Demi Lovato's version of "Let It Go", albeit with slightly modified lyrics to reflect Elsa's character, before the reprise starts.Later after the North American tour in 2019, the reprise was replaced with a new duet titled "I Can't Lose You", which was eventually added to subsequent productions of the musical, while the "Let it Go" stanza remains unchanged.