"Wunderkind" is a song written and recorded by Canadian-American singer

Alanis Morissette Alanis Nadine Morissette ( ; born June 1, 1974) is a Canadian-American singer, songwriter, and actress. Known for her emotive mezzo-soprano voice and confessional songwriting, Morissette began her career in Canada in the early 1990s with tw ...

for the soundtrack of the 2005 film '' The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe''. The song was nominated for

Best Original Song This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

at the 63rd Golden Globe Awards.

Background

Morissette was inspired to write the song after watching a rough cut of the film; according to her, the song seemed to flow from her and "really touches me deeply". She wrote it on a Friday, recorded it on Saturday, and handed it in on Sunday. After the release of "Wunderkind", Morissette enlisted producer Mike Elizondo to co-produce her tenth album. The protagonist of the song, which is written from the point of view of the character of

Lucy Pevensie Lucy Pevensie is a fictional character in C. S. Lewis's ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' series. She is the youngest of the four Pevensie children, and the first to find the Wardrobe entrance to Narnia in '' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe''. Of ...

, describes herself as "a magnet for all kinds of deeper wonderment", "a

wunderkind A child prodigy is defined in psychology research literature as a person under the age of ten who produces meaningful output in some domain at the level of an adult expert. The term is also applied more broadly to young people who are extraor ...

" and "a princess on the way to erthrone" during the

chorus Chorus may refer to: Music * Chorus (song) or refrain, line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse * Chorus effect, the perception of similar sounds from multiple sources as a single, richer sound * Chorus form, song in which all verse ...

. The string arrangements were in charge of

Harry Gregson-Williams Harry Gregson-Williams (born 13 December 1961) is a British composer, conductor, orchestrator, and record producer. He has composed music for video games, television and films including the ''Metal Gear'' series, ''Spy Game'', ''Phone Booth'', ...

, the movie's composer.

Release and reception

IGN Music ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

wrote that it was "equally captivating" as

Imogen Heap Imogen Jennifer Heap (born 9 December 1977) is a British musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. Her work has been considered pioneering in pop and electropop music. Heap classically trained in piano, cello and clarinet starting at ...

's soundtrack contribution "Can't Take It In", with Morissette "letting her warble drip delicately over a

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

driven lament. It's one of the best things she's done in a long time." ''

Sci Fi Weekly Syfy (formerly Sci-Fi Channel, later shortened to Sci Fi; stylized as SYFY) is an American basic cable channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. Laun ...

'' also described it as "captivating", writing "Morissette delivers twith a depth of feeling that makes one sit up and take notice." Movie Music UK called the song "wholly unremarkable ... it doesn't help that Alanis Morissette can't pronounce the word 'wunderkind' properly - it comes out as "wander" (as in walk around aimlessly) and "kind" (as in being nice to someone)." Similarly, Christian Clemmensen of

Filmtracks.com Filmtracks.com is a modern film score review website created and maintained by its sole reviewer, Christian Clemmensen. Since the launch of Filmtracks in 1996, the website has reviewed nearly two-thousand soundtracks dating as far back as 1954, t ...

wrote "wait until you hear Alanis Morissette belt out her classless pronunciation of ' nderkind'", and compared it to

Annie Lennox Ann Lennox (born 25 December 1954) is a Scottish singer-songwriter, political activist and philanthropist. After achieving moderate success in the late 1970s as part of the New wave music, new wave band the Tourists, she and fellow musician D ...

's " Into the West", a song on the soundtrack for the 2003 film '' The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King''. "Wunderkind" was nominated for the 2006

Golden Globe The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...

for "

" (see

63rd Golden Globe Awards nominees The 63rd Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film and television for 2005 in film, 2005, were presented on January 16, 2006, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, in Los Angeles, California. The nominations were announced on December 13, 2005. The ...

). After the nominations were announced, Morissette's home was inundated with phone calls, leading her to assume that "something must be wrong, somebody must be hurt"; she later said she was "excited that some light is being shone on

he song He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

" The song was premiered on

AOL Music AOL (stylized as Aol., formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by the current incarnation of Yahoo! Inc. ...

on November 18, 2005 (see

2005 in music 5 (five) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number, and cardinal number, following 4 and preceding 6, and is a prime number. It has attained significance throughout history in part because typical humans have five digits on eac ...

),"Hear Alanis Morissette's 'Wunderkind' on AOL"
NarniaWeb.com. November 18, 2005. Retrieved April 9, 2007. ahead of the December release of the film and of the soundtrack album '' The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'', on which it is featured. It was subsequently released as a

radio single In music, a single is a type of release, typically a song recording of fewer tracks than an LP record or an album. One can be released for sale to the public in a variety of formats. In most cases, a single is a song that is released separate ...

in some parts of

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

in early 2006 (see

2006 in music This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 2006. Specific locations *2006 in British music *2006 in Irish music *2006 in Norwegian music *2006 in South Korean music *2006 in Swiss music Specific genres * 2006 i ...

). On February 28, 2010, Morissette performed the song at the closing ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Because of that, the song charted at #4 on iTunes Canada.

References

{{Authority control Alanis Morissette songs 2005 songs 2006 singles Songs written by Alanis Morissette The Chronicles of Narnia music Song recordings produced by Mike Elizondo