"How Far I'll Go" and its reprise are two musical numbers from

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

's 2016 animated musical feature film '' Moana''. It was written by

Lin-Manuel Miranda Lin-Manuel Miranda (; born January 16, 1980) is an American songwriter, actor, singer, filmmaker, rapper, and librettist. He created the Broadway musicals '' In the Heights'' and ''Hamilton'', and the soundtracks for the animated films '' Moana' ...

, with additional music and co-produced by

Mark Mancina Mark Mancina (born 1957) is an American film composer. A veteran of Hans Zimmer's Media Ventures, Mancina has scored over sixty films and television series including ''Speed'', '' Bad Boys'', ''Twister'', ''Tarzan'', '' Training Day'', '' Brothe ...

on its reprise. The song was performed in the film by American actress and singer Auliʻi Cravalho in her role as Moana. It was released along with the album on November 18, 2016. Canadian singer

Alessia Cara Alessia Caracciolo (born July 11, 1996), known professionally as Alessia Cara (), is a Canadian singer and songwriter. She began posting covers of songs on YouTube at age 13. After uploading acoustic covers of songs such as " Love Yourself" and ...

also recorded the song for the ''Moana'' soundtrack. The song was nominated for Best Original Song at the

89th Academy Awards The 89th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best 2016 in film, films of 2016, and took place on February 26, 2017, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, Californ ...

and Best Original Song at the 74th Golden Globe Awards and won the

Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media The Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media (including its previous names) is the Grammy Awards awarded to songs written for films, television, video games or other visual media. Alan Menken has won five awards (out of nine nominati ...

at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards.

Composition

"How Far I'll Go" was composed as Moana's "I Want" song, following in the long tradition of "I Want" songs in 1990s Disney animated musicals. It replaced an earlier attempt called "More", for which the demo version recorded by Marcy Harriell was released as an outtake on the deluxe version of the soundtrack album. Although Miranda has stressed that he is still "very proud of" the song as a first draft, "More" was not good enough in retrospect because it merely expressed Moana's vague desire to see more since she had already figured out everything about the island. In contrast, Miranda feels that "How Far I'll Go" expresses a deeper, richer message: Moana's struggle with the irresistible impulse to explore beyond the reef notwithstanding her genuine love for her island, her family, and her people. As Miranda explained to ''

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'': "To me that's much more complicated than, 'I hate it here and I want to get out,' ... To say, 'I love it here, I love my parents, but why can't I stop walking to the ocean and fantasizing about getting out of here?' And questioning that instinct? It's even more confusing. And that's a valid story too." To make himself write a song more compelling than "More", Miranda " went method". According to Miranda, he locked himself in his childhood bedroom at his parents' residence for an entire weekend in order to force his mind back to age 16 (the same age as Moana in the film), a time when he was facing what seemed like an "impossible distance" between the reality of his pleasant middle-class childhood which had no connection to show business whatsoever, and his dreams of a career in show business. He was well aware that he was composing the next Disney "I Want" song after "

Let It Go "Let It Go" is a song from Disney's 2013 computer-animated feature film '' Frozen'', whose music and lyrics were composed by husband-and-wife songwriting team Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez. The song was performed in its original show ...

" and that whatever he wrote had to be different from it. According to the sheet music published at Sheetmusicdirect.com by Disney Music Company, "How Far I'll Go" is a moderate tempo of 82

beats per minute Beat, beats, or beating may refer to: Common uses * Assault, inflicting physical harm or unwanted physical contact * Battery (crime), a criminal offense involving unlawful physical contact * Battery (tort), a civil wrong in common law of in ...

. Written in

common time A time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, and measure signature) is an indication in music notation that specifies how many note values of a particular type fit into each measure ( bar). The time signature indicates the ...

, the song is in the key of

E major E major is a major scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has four sharps. Its relative minor is C-sharp minor and its parallel minor is E minor. Its enharmonic equivalent, F-flat maj ...

with a key change to

F major F major is a major scale based on F, with the pitches F, G, A, B, C, D, and E. Its key signature has one flat.Music Theory'. (1950). United States: Standards and Curriculum Division, Training, Bureau of Naval Personnel. 28. Its relati ...

for the final 10 measures. Auliʻi Cravalho's vocal range spans from B₃ to D₅ during the song. Moana's part from the end of "I Am Moana (Song of the Ancestors)", another song that also shares the last two notes from "How Far I'll Go", features the final 10 measures as part of Moana's melody.

International versions

When the movie had its first theater release worldwide, the song numbered 44 versions, including a special Tahitian-language adaptation created specifically for the movie. For promotional purposes,

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n singer

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and Filipino singer and actress Janella Salvador recorded their own English-language versions of the song, while

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

n singer

Maudy Ayunda Ayunda Faza Maudya, commonly known as Maudy Ayunda (born 19 December 1994) is an Indonesian actress, singer-songwriter, entrepreneur and author. Ayunda made her debut in the entertainment industry through the film ":id:Untuk Rena, Untuk Rena" ...

and

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

n singer Ayda Jebat recorded their own versions of the song respectively in Indonesian and Malay language. On December 15, a 5-languages mash-up was released online, featuring singers from

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

n countries: Janella Salvador from the

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from

, Myra Molloy from

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, Ayda Jebat from

and Trần Minh Như from

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. Shortly thereafter, a 24-languages video was released on Disney's Vevo channel. In June 2017, a Māori-language version of the movie, featuring four voice-actors from the original English cast, was announced. Three weeks later,

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er Jaedyn Randell was introduced as Moana's voice. The movie was released in September 2017. In the same year, Shruti Rane (

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

) reprised her role in the Bengali-language version of the movie. In November 2017, a Hawaiian-language dubbing was announced to be under way, with Auliʻi Cravalho reprising her role as Moana. The movie premiered on June 10, 2018.

Charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Alessia Cara version

Canadian singer and songwriter

recorded "How Far I'll Go" for the ''Moana'' soundtrack, with the song being released ahead of the soundtrack on October 28, 2016. It was included in the deluxe edition of '' Know-It-All'' released in Asia.

Critical reception

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''s Brittany Spanos called the song "inspirational and sweet" and went on to say "the uplifting song is a perfect fit into the ''Disney'' canon, with Cara belting lyrics about persevering to achieve her dreams in spite of her imperfections or detractors." US magazine ''

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'' said "the empowering anthem allows the Canadian songstress to deliver outstanding vocals about overcoming adversity to reach for goals" and labeled it "a song with a message" and an "emotionally-charged track." Taylor Weatherby of ''

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'' dubbed it a "bouncy, uplifting tune." Idolator's Mike Wass said "the inspiring anthem is the perfect antidote to the general ugliness of 2016" and called it "a soaring ballad."

Music video

The official music video for the song, directed by Aya Tanimura, was released on November 3, 2016. Derek Lawrence of ''

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'' described the video: "The video finds Cara roaming an empty beach as she belts out lyrics that reflect the film's plot about a young Polynesian girl setting sail for an epic adventure." The video was filmed at El Matador Beach in Malibu, California.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

International versions

In many versions of ''Moana'', Alessia Cara's version of the song played during the end credits. However, several localized adaptations of Cara's version of the song were recorded for the end credits of the film as released in certain markets around the world. Vajèn van den Bosch ( Dutch), Laura Tesoro ( Flemish) and Cerise Calixte ( French) sang the song both for the end credits and the movie. Yulianna Karaulova (

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

) took also part in the movie voicing Sina, Moana's mother, in the Russian version.

Cover versions

* In 2017, post-hardcore band Boy Hero covered the song. As of February 2022, the song has amassed over 2 million streams on Spotify. * In 2019, the Swedish pop group Dolly Style covered the song for a Swedish version of '' We Love Disney''.

Accolades

References

{{authority control 2016 songs 2016 singles Alessia Cara songs Disney songs Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media Moana (franchise) Pop ballads Songs written for animated films Songs written by Lin-Manuel Miranda Songs written for films Walt Disney Records singles Def Jam Recordings singles 2010s ballads American soul songs Tropical house songs Canadian synth-pop songs