Viral ‘Wicked’ Hanukkah video shines light with message of resilience
The song by veteran Jewish a cappella group Six13 has already racked up hundreds of thousands of views across social media
A Hanukkah music video mashing up tunes from the hit movie “Wicked” has already racked up hundreds of thousands of views across social media just several days after its release.
The song, by veteran Jewish a cappella group Six13, is a voice-only medley of music from the box office smash prequel to the classic movie “The Wizard of Oz.” The New York-based band is known for its creative musical adaptations of popular culture for the Jewish holidays. Its previous Hanukkah videos have included riffs on musicians Taylor Swift, Elton John, and Queen, and movies like Star Wars and West Side Story.
In tune with the challenges the Jewish people have faced over the past 14 months since the October 7, 2023, Hamas terror attack, the song starts with the acknowledgment that “This year has changed our history, we will never be the same,” as it shows scenes of families of Israel’s hostages in Gaza.
The video continues through some of the most popular songs in “Wicked” — “Defying Gravity” and “Popular” — weaving between themes of Jewish pride, resilience, and holiday cheer and interspersing tales of Jewish history with characters from “Wicked.”
“The parallels between their story, the ancient one we celebrate, and the ongoing struggle we endure today — fighting against the odds, overcoming oppression and vilification — are not lost on us,” the band wrote about the video.
The video concludes by declaring that “no terror or Antiochus, no enemy there is or was, is ever gonna bring us down,” as it juxtaposes a photo of a menorah in Nazi Germany with a scene of IDF soldiers lighting the candles in Gaza.
“Wicked,” released in late November, is already the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2024. The 160-minute movie, the first of a two-part series, chronicles the friendship between Elphaba, the misunderstood witch with green skin, and Glinda, the popular blonde sorceress, in the years before Elphaba becomes the Wicked Witch of the West.
The movie, which stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, is based on the Broadway musical written and composed by Steven Schwartz, which is loosely based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.” The story is intended to provide background to the events preceding the plot of “The Wizard of Oz,” the 1939 film classic based on the 1900 novel by L. Frank Baum.
