New “Magic is Calling” Song for Disney World’s 50th Anniversary
A new song is coming for Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary! We have a video previewing the new anniversary anthem, behind the scenes info, and a rundown of our favorite past songs. Plus, new concept art for the Beacons of Magic launching as part of the World’s Most Magical Celebration, the 18-month event that kicks off on October 1, 2021. (See our Guide to Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary for more info!)
As is customary for milestone anniversaries, Walt Disney World has created a song that will be incorporated into elements of the celebration. Platinum-selling songwriter and music producer Alana Da Fonseca answered the call to create an original anthem for the World’s Most Magical Celebration.
She collaborates with award-winning composer Emily Bear, plus singing phenom Journi on “The Magic Is Calling,” created specifically for Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary. Da Fonseca’s pop music style, Bear’s soaring orchestrations and Journi’s magical vocal performance come together to create a song that is all at once nostalgic, inspirational and contemporary…
“It’s such a tremendous honor to write something that celebrates a place that brings so much joy to so many people,” said Da Fonseca. “There’s magic all around us, and when you’re there, you are feeling it at every turn.”
You can start hearing “The Magic is Calling” soon in a variety of ways, as the song invites all guests to join the celebration. Which brings us to the new Beacons of Magic concept art for each of the 4 parks at Walt Disney World:
This concept art looks awesome, but it’s important to remember that it’s exactly that–highly stylized and fantastical art not necessarily fully reflective of what guests will see.
An “expectations check” might be in order. We almost certainly are not going to see pixie dust flying out of the top spire of Cinderella Castle, or random lens flare and bokeh on Sunset Boulevard. Nevertheless, I’m hyped. This looks cool.
Above is the video Walt Disney World released previewing the making of “The Magic is Calling.” Per Disney, this anniversary anthem will connect to all four parks.
Different arrangements of the song will be heard when each Walt Disney World theme park icon transforms into a magnificent Beacon of Magic at night, beckoning all to come and celebrate.
Throughout the 50th Anniversary Celebration, “The Magic Is Calling” will also be included in special live entertainment moments across Walt Disney World Resort.
You’ll hear the anthem during Mickey’s Celebration Cavalcade, featuring the “EARidescent 8” each day at Magic Kingdom Park, and listen for custom arrangements of the song performed by everyone from the Main Street Philharmonic and Dapper Dans to the Discovery Island Drummers and Voices of Liberty.
That all sounds fantastic to me. As regular readers undoubtedly know, we love theme park music, have a huge collection of Disney parks songs, and play background music regularly (see here and here and here).
With that in mind, I thought it’d be fun to share some of our celebratory favorites here from Walt Disney World and beyond for those who are newer to fandom (a couple of these are still used in various locations around the parks, so you might find them vaguely familiar even if you’ve never heard the full songs):
There are a ton of others, many of which are not available online. If you’re hearing some of these for the first time, some of them might sound cheesy or date.
For those of us who visited back then, the Walt Disney World 25th Anniversary and Millennium Celebration music is the soundtrack of our nostalgia and memories. (Kellie Coffey is basically the singing equivalent of Stacey Aswad.)
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Your Thoughts
What do you think? Excited for a new anniversary anthem for Walt Disney World’s 50th? Hope this will go down with the greats like “Remember the Magic” or the “Tapestry of Nations” soundtrack? Do you agree or disagree with our thoughts? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
2022 year long 50th celebration ï¸ï¸â¤ï¸
To Rhonda – thank you for sharing that lovely memory and wish 🙂 You brought a bit of real Disney magic to me.
Was so excited to hear Brand New Day being used at Disneyland as the soundtrack to a cavalcade a few weeks ago; took an excellent family trip to Japan back in January 2019 during the 35th and wasn’t expecting to ever hear it again in a park setting. These are all great selections too; can’t hear Promise without getting a little misty eyed…
Not all of the links to YouTube worked for me but… TAPESTRY OF NATIONS?!?! That’s my favorite Disney park song. I have such fond memories of the Epcot parade from when I was a kid – those clocks and drums!
I never cry and these songs make me cry immediately. I need to move closer to Disney World ASAP. Thanks for sharing the songs. :’)
50th anniversary merchandise was in some stores yesterday.
I love the concept art, but the first thing I thought of upon seeing them was spirits rising from the park icons a-la Ghostbusters.
I hope they release this music on CD. Yes, CD for us collectors. I prefer lossless digital audio personally and a physical medium I can hold. Perhaps an album could be released that has a collection of all of the older celebration songs from WDW.
Thank you for sharing these “old” and wonderful Disney songs! I was always disappointed that a CD with the pre-Illuminations music was never released. I loved walking around just enjoying all that fantastic and varied music!
Thanks again for all your blogs! We are going September 17-24 ….which you’ve pointed out might be good! (Fingers crossed the inside mask wearing stops by then) We’ll be staying in Florida near Disney in March and hope our Annual Passes can get us in the parks to see all the 50th fun!
Thank you so much for sharing those songs! It brought tears to my eyes and memories of 50 years of multigenerational trips to WDW. As I listened, I could see my grandpa, who loved Disney, dancing out of pure joy to be at this magical place with his beloved family. He and grandma have passed on, but our family’s legacy and love for Disney World continues. I am blessed to be able to ‘remember the magic’ with my 8 (soon to be 10) grandchildren. Hopefully, the memories we make will be retold to their own children and grandchildren one day, and they will remember the joy in their grandma’s eyes at that first glimpse of the castle!
Brand New Day and Happiness is Here still get me, mostly because of fond memories of being at TDR during the 35th Celebrations. I know some folks were upset that Brand New Day was recycled at DLP, but it’s such a fun song! I’m glad it lives on in another park 🙂
To Kimberly,
I don’t know if you’ve seen the cavalcades but they’re not as disappointing as one might imagine.
Yes they’re a little short and a full blown parade is better but those cavalcades are actually a lot of fun. And you don’t lose any time in the park by setting yourself up for that perfect spot. You’re moving from one ride to another or buying popcorn or leaving a shop when suddenly you hear music and there’s Mickey or a Princess waving to you from a cool float and all’s right with the world.
Tom thanks for always keeping us in the loop. This snippet of music and soaring voices made my day. It’s also a wake up call that I’ve go to get going on a certain promise I made.
I used to be a CP at Innoventions and part of my job was working crowd control for Illuminations: Reflections of Earth (which i still can’t say without blowing out a pretend torch with a pretend child) I played the first few seconds of “Promise” and immediately started crying at my desk at work. So thanks for that.
Really all Disney fireworks music makes me cry, but especially that one. I joke that Disney knows just how to press my emotional buttons because it programmed them.
I’m sure the anthem will be great and the beacons of light look gorgeous, but there was one detail in here that sounds a little disappointing . . . the Celebration Cavalcade. I was still holding out hope that they would announce a parade as a last minute surprise and just didn’t want to announce too early in case covid made them change their plans, but it seems this the final nail in that coffin. Oh well. I’m sure the anniversary events will still be a huge and festive event. I’m just missing the full parade experience.