Rarely do I hear a song that on the first listen transcends my understanding of the limitations of music. But recently, as I become more immersed in youtube’s outsider music, I have learned that there are some songs that can completely shatter one’s understanding of music, culture, art, and even the self. A song is a multiplicity of histories compounded – within any 3:36 minute song one engages with the culture that produced the song, the sonic sciences and recording technologies, the cultural references contained in the song, an understanding of lyrics, poetry, and imagery, and of course, the unquantifiable emotion to which the song evokes in the heart of the listener. No single song shatters my perception of these boundaries and leads to new musical insight as does “toad sings chandelier”.
If you have not already heard this masterpiece, you are about to be blessed. Please take some time to listen to this truly artful cultural relic. The song was performed by singer melancholiaah and uploaded on Youtube on October 13th, 2018. While melancholiaah has recorded several other hit pop songs in the key of Toad, "Chandelier" is unrivaled at the top. The song is silly, emotive, and affects one’s core in a deep and near spiritual way. In this post, I will attempt to explain why this song is such a paramount piece of artwork due to its historiographies, but, as humans have tried to describe God in the past, this undertaking cannot approach the undefined sublimity of the topic.
Toad Sings Chandelier is the syncretic result of two converging histories. The first is history is the song “Chandelier”. “Chandelier” is the 2014 single and opening song from Australian pop icon SIA’s album “1000 Forms of Fear”. To quote Wikipedia, “Lyrically, the song has a melancholic theme, detailing the demoralization and rationalization of alcoholism through the thought process of a ‘party girl’"[1]. Throughout the length of the song, Sia describes feelings of shame, impulse, and careless behavior due to excessive consumption and hedonism and its consequent destructive cycle. The song evokes images of being at a club, downing shots in succession, and, as the title suggests, swinging from a chandelier with reckless abandon. The song is a classic 2014 power ballad, and as such, I never gave too much thought to the song as it was so integrated in the 2010s musical soundscape. I always knew it existed, but it never really spoke to me in any way, I just accepted that it was a song in the world. But little did I know that a screechy-voiced fictional mycelium would change my outlook on the song.
The second history that one must acknowledge to recognize the brilliance of this song is Toad. Toad (or in Japanese “kinopio”/キノピオ, which is effectively a combination of the Japanese word for Mushroom - “kinoko” and wordplay on pinnochio[2]) is a fictional character from Nintendo’s Mario Universe. Toad first made their appearance in 1985’s Super Mario Bros., meaning that this character has been a part of the Mario Universe from its near conception. Toad is a hybrid mushroom-human person and is both a specific individual, as well as a species, comparable to The Pegasus from Ancient Greek Mythology. In the world of Mario, Toads are the primary denizens of the Mushroom Kingdom, the domain which Princess Peach rules over. Whenever there are dangers in the kingdom, Mario is the one who saves the people, effectively making Mario the Patron Saint of the Toad-folk. Toad (the individual) is also a central part of Mario’s entourage – he can always be found partying with Mario or playing various sports such as Tennis, Baseball, and, of course, Go-carting.
One of Toad’s signature traits, after their Mushroom head that is, is their unique voice. It can best be described as “grating”, “perpetually surprised”, and “annoying”. Whenever playing a Mario game, the Toad voice is bound to hit hard in the upper register of one's ears. To learn more about the specific history of the Toad Voice I suggest watching this mini-documentary below, as it highlights why the Toad voice is so idiosyncratic.
With an understanding of these two diverse histories, one can fully appreciate the miracle that this song is. Technically this song is a cover, but I think it transcends that. Like Jimi Hendrix’s cover of "All Along the Watchtower" eclipsed the original Bob Dylan version, I think this is the same for this record. melancholiaah's vocal performance is outstanding; not only does he hit all of SIA’s notes, but he does so while playing the role of a little mushroom man from children's video games. The chorus transcends musical limits, and every time I listen to it I get tears of laughter. The “whoaoaoaoao” after “here comes the shame, here comes the shame” resonates on a deeply emotional level. And the outro. Repetitions of “I’m just holding on for tonight, on for tonight” acknowledges the clinging fear of time passing and the desperate attempts that one makes for joy in a chaotic world. It is yearning, regret, and hope all wrapped into a single emotive phrase. Melancholiaah does change the song in a meaningful way, replacing the tragic figure of an alcoholic “party girl” with that of a funganic hominid from a Japanese franchise about a heroic Italian plumber really makes one think.
This song is powerful in so many ways. As stated in the earlier paragraph it is an impressive piece of vocal performance and theater. The song also is the result of these converging histories – it is the intersection of popular music of the 2010s (and consequently Western musical trajectories in general) and a character study of a figure we only know as Toad. While fictional characters covering popular music in their idiosyncratic voice is by no means a novel category (see Hermit the Frog’s “Once in a Lifetime”, Goofy Singing Evanescence’s “Wake Me Up”, or Alvin and the Chipmunks’ entire discovery) this song is the gold standard, the stairway to heaven of the genre. I think it is up to ask the questions of why we value these covers so deeply and why these fictional characters bring us such creature comfort?
And it’s not only me who thinks this. At the time of writing this, “toad sings chandelier” has 7 million views. One can even view the ways that the song has affected individuals when scrolling through the Youtube comments. Some such comments include “It is both somehow better and worse than what I expected” And “It’s like a thousand cats giving birth, a thing of absolute beauty I never knew existed before”. In one particularly heartfelt message, someone wrote, “I know you don’t do Toad Sings anymore, so I don’t know if you still read these comments. But two years ago, I was in a bad place. You obviously had (and still have) amazing vocal range and these “dumb” little toad sings videos made me want to sing. In singing, I found a new reason to live. All because of Toad.” Every person I have shown this video to has been profoundly moved, and clearly, this is a shared experience when listening to the song.
Beauty can be found in the most shocking of places. Some people might see beauty in how the mist from a waterfall develops into a rainbow. Others find beauty in the eyes of a child. I find beauty in a fictional mushroom man screeching about drunkenly swinging from an elegant lighting fixture. The song is shockingly spiritual. It’s all a matter of perspective, but I think "toad sings chandelier" is evidence enough that some type of eternal human truth can be found in the most hidden corners of YouTube.
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