Aida Lyrics

Every Story is a Love Story

Amneris:
Every story, tale or memoir Every saga or romance Whether true or fabricated Whether planned or happenstance Whether sweeping through the ages Casting centuries aside Or a hurried brief recital Just a thirty-minute ride Whether bright or melancholy Rough and ready, finely spun Whether with a thousand players Or a lonely cast of one Every story, new or ancient Bagatelle or work of art All are tales of human failing All are tales of love at heart This is the story Of a love that flourished In a time of hate Of lovers no tyranny could separate Love set into motion on the Nile's shore Destiny ignited by an act of war Egypt saw the mighty river as its very heart and soul Source of life for all her people That only Egypt could control Destruction of her southern neighbor justified Nubia exploited, left with little more than pride

Fortune Favors the Brave

Soldiers:
Oh, Oh Fortune Favors the Brave Oh, Oh Fortune Favors the Brave Radames:
We have swept to glory, Egypt's mastery expands From the Nile's northern most delta To the dry, dry southern sands The more we find, the more we see, The more we come to learn The more that we explore, The more we shall return Soldiers:
Oh, oh Fortune favors the brave Radames:
It's all worked out, my road is clear The lines of latitude extend Way beyond my wildest dreams Toward some great triumphant end We seize the day We turned the tide We touched the stars We mocked the grave We moved into uncharted lands Radames & Soldiers:
Fortune favors the brave Radames:
The more we find, the more we see The more we come to learn The more that we explore The more we shall return Nothing is an accident We are free to have it all We are what we want to be It's in ourselves to rise or fall This is easy to believe When distant places call to me It's harder from the palace yard Fortune favors the free Soldiers:
Oh, oh Radames:
Fortune favors the young! Soldiers:
Oh, oh Radames:
Fortune favors the brave!

The Past Is Another Land

Aida:
You know nothing about me and care even less How could you understand our emptiness You've plundered our wisdom, our knowledge, our wealth In bleeding us dry You long for our spirit But that you will never possess The past is now another land Far beyond my reach Invaded by insidious Foreign bodies, foreign speech Where timeless joys of childhood Lie broken on the beach The present is an empty space Between the good and bad A moment leading nowhere Too pointless to be sad But time enough to lay to waste Every certainty I had The future is a barren world From which I can't return Both heartless and material Its wretched spoils not my concern Shining like an evil sun As my childhood treasures burn Shining like an evil sun As my childhood treasures burn

Another Pyramid

Zoser:
While you've been away cavorting Matters here have moved apace Now I need you home supporting All the plans I've put in place First of all this means your wedding You'll recall your future bride For the way that Pharaoh's heading Time's no longer on our side According to the hawk god, Horus Our most regal invalid Is not that much longer for us Build another pyramid! There are many who'll be tearful As our leader fades away But our architects are cheerful And each dog must have its day If our country is to flourish Then my son must take the lead Be our inspiration, nourish All our hopes our dreams our creed Soon our monarch will have filled a Tomb just like his fathers did Summon Egypt's greatest builders Re: another pyramid Ministers:
Build it, build it Another pyramid There will be a time for mourning But for now put plans on hold Ministers:
Hold For I give the nation warning That before the corpse is cold Ministers:
Cold We'll extend fair Egypt's power Egypt's glory strength and style We shall have our finest hour Far beyond the mighty Nile He must have a vault that's grand by Any standards, floor to lid Put five thousand slaves on stand by Build another pyramid! Ministers:
Build it, build it Build it, build it Build it, build it Build it- Build it, build it Build it- Zoser:
He must have a vault that's grand by Any standards, floor to lid Put five thousand slaves on stand by Build another pyramid!

How I Know You

Mereb:
I grew up in your hometown At least began to grow I hadn't got to my first shave before the body blow Egyptians in the courtyard My family in chains You witnessed our abduction Which possibly explains How I know you How I know you Before that fateful morning My family enjoyed A privileged existence For my father was employed As advisor to the King no less Which surely rings a bell For as your are his daughter You probably can tell How I know you Yes I know you Aida:
You know too much and what you say Is better left unknown And now I'm just a slave like you Our lives our not our own Mereb:
I never have abandoned And nor I think could you That spark of hope for freedom No terror can subdue Aida:
My only hope is silence You've never seen my face Mereb:
No you remain a princess In any time or place Aida:
You don't know me Mereb:
Yes, I know you Aida:
You don't know me Mereb:
How I know you How I know you

My Strongest Suit

Amneris:
In life one has to face a huge assortment
Of nauseating fads and good advice
There's health and fitness
Diet and deportment

And other pointless forms of sacrifice
Conversation? Wit? I am a doubter
Manners? Charm?
They're no way to impress
So forget the inner me , observe the outer
I am what I wear and how I dress

Oh now I believe in looking
Like my time on earth is cooking
Whether polka dotted
Striped or even checked
With the some glamour guaranteeing
Every fiber on of my being
Is displayed to quite remarkable effect


From your cradle via trousseau
To your deathbed you're on view, so
Never compromise, accept no substitute
I would rather wear a barrel
Than conservative apparel
For my dress has always been
My strongest suit







Staying in or hitting town wards
From the top and working downwards
I ensure that every stitch
Is stitched in time

Whether wig or hat or turban
Whether clad boudoir or urban
Not to strut your stuff
Outrageously's a crime


And the few who are invited
To my wardrobe are delighted
As they wander through my things
To find en route


That in negligee or formal
I am anything but normal


For my dress has always been
My strongest suit


I am what I wear


I said anytime

Anywhere


So bring me all my finest
Most audacious, my divinest
Most revealing
Most expensive and to boot


Most arresting

Most heartstopping
Most free-flowing
Most eye-popping
Most arresting
Most heart-stopping
Dress has always been
My strongest suit

My strongest suit

You know that
I am what I wear

Dress has always been
My strongest
My strongest
My strongest
My stroooooooooongest suit

My strongest suit!

Women:

Ah
Ah
Ah
Ah
Ah
Ah
Ah
Overwear
Underwear
Anytime
Anywhere



Ooh ooh ooh ah
Ooh ooh ooh ah
Ooh ooh ooh ah


Is stitched in time
Ooh ooh ooh ah
Ooh ooh ooh ah
Ooh ooh ooh ah

Such a crime
Oooh overwear
Oooh underwear
Oooh anytime
We're wandering through your things

Ooh negligee
Ooh anything but normal normal

Ooh ah

Overwear, underwear
Anytime, anywhere
Overwear, underwear
Anytime, anywhere
Overwear, underwear
Anytime, anywhere
Overwear,underwear
Anytime


Finest
Divinest

Most revealing most
expensive
Most arresting
Most heartstopping
Most heart-stoping
Overwear
Underwear
Anytime
Anywhere
Dress has always been

I am what I wear

I am what I wear

I am what I wear


Dress has always been
My strongest
My strongest
My strongest suit
My strongest
My strongest
My strongest suit

Enchantment Passing Through

Radames:
To sail away to half discovered places To see the secrets so few eyes have seen To see moments of enchantment on our faces The moments when we smile and those in between Aida:
If I could leave this place then I'd be sailing To corners of my land where there would be Sweet southern winds of liberty prevailing The beauty so majestic and so free Radames:
There'd be no ties of time and space to bind me Aida:
And no horizon I could pursue Radames:
I'd leave the world's misfortunes far behind me Aida:
I'd put my faith and trusting in something new Radames and Aida:
But why should I tell you this Aida:
A stranger I just met Radames:
A woman whom I hardly know at all and should forget Radames and Aida:
A journey we can only dream of Enchantment passing through And how is it I say these things So easily to you Radames:
But why did I tell her this? A stranger I've just met A woman who I hardly know at all and will forget Anonymous and gone tomorrow Enchantment passing through And all I've done is tell her things she already knew She knew ...She knew....

My Strongest Suit (Reprise)

Amneris:
I may leave a great impression As I race through a succession Of the latest crazes, chase the newest fad I feel better when beguiling Find that fashion keeps me smiling But in my heart I know it's rather sad Aida:
That a life of great potential Is dismissed, inconsequential Amneris:
And only ever seen as being cute So I'll flutter to deceive Aida:
Oh no you must believe That one day you're bound to find Aida/Amneris:
A Stronger Suit

The Dance of the Robe

Aida:
It's knowing what they want of me that scares me It's knowing having followed that I must lead It's knowing that each person there compares me To those in my past whom I now succeed But how can whatever I do for them now Be enough Be enough Nubians:
Aida! Aida! All we ask of you Is a lifetime of service, wisdom, courage To ask more would be selfish But nothing less will do Aida! Aida! Nehebka:
You robe should be golden, your robe should be perfect Instead of this ragged concoction of thread But may you be moved by its desperate beauty To give us new life for we'd rather be dead Then live in the squalor and shame of the slave To the dance! To the dance! Nubians:
Aida! Aida! All we ask of you All we ask is a lifetime of Service, wisdom, courage To ask more would be selfish But nothing less will do Aida! Aida! Nubians:
Aida! Aida! Aida! Aida! Aida! Aida:
I know expectations are wild and almost Beyond my fulfillment but they won't hear A word of a doubt or see signs of weakness My nigh on impossible duty is clear If I can rekindle my ancestors' dreams It's enough It's enough Aida: It's enough Nubians: Aida! Nubians:
Aida! Aida! Aida! Aida! Aida! Aida: It's enough Nubians: Ah,ah,ah,ah,ah,ah

Not Me

Radames:
I once knew all the answers I stood on certain ground A picture of true happiness Confidence so effortless No brighter could be found Mereb:
Oh No Radames:
I never asked the questions That trouble me today I knew all there was to know Love worn lightly Put on show My conquests on display (Mereb:I can't believe He's changing) And who'd have thought that (Mereb:Oh, no) Confidence could die? Not me , Not me (Mereb:Not me, not me) That all I took for granted was a lie Not me, Not me And who'd have guessed I'd throw my world away To be with someone I'm afraid will say (Mereb:This can never) Not me,not me (Mereb:Be) Mereb:
He's in love But he's not the only one Who'll be changed Aida:
I shall not envy lovers But long for what they share Amneris:
An empty room is merciless Don't be surprised if I confess I need some comfort there Aida and Amneris:
And who'd have thought That love could be so good? Not me, not me And show me things I never understood Not me, not me Who'd have guessed he'd Throw his world away To be with someone til his dying day Not me, not me Radames, Amneris, Aida:
And who'd have thought that love Could be so good Not me, not me (Mereb:Not me, not me) My/his secrets & My/his passions understood Not me, not me (Mereb:Not me, not me) Who'd have guessed I'd/ he throw My/his world away To be with someone til my/his dying day Not me/not me (Mereb:This can never be)

Elaborate Lives

Radames:
We all lead such elaborate lives wild ambitions in our sights How an affair of the heart survives days apart and hurried nights Seems quite unbelievable to me I don't want to live like that seems quite unbelievable to me I don't want to love like that I just want our time to be slower and gentler, wiser,free We all live in extravagant times playing games we can't all win Unintened emotional crimes Take some out, take others in I'm so tired of all were going through I don't want to live like that I'm so tired of all were going through I don't want to love like that I jsut want to be with you Now and forever ,peaceful,true This may not be the moment to tell you face to face But I could wait forever for the perfect time and place Aida & Radames:
We all lead such elaborate lives We don't know whose words are true Strangers, lovers, husbands, wives Hard to know who's loving who Aida:
Too many choices tear us apart I don't want to live like that Radames:
Too many choices tear us apart I don't want to love like that I just want to touch your heart May this confession Radames and Aida:
be the start

The Gods Love Nubia

Aida:
Take me in my dreams recurring Cheerful as a childhood dance Into one more taste of freedom One more longing backward glance In the sway of somber music I shall never, never understand Let me slip into the sweeter Chorus of that other land The gods love Nubia, the beautiful, the golden The radiant, the fertile, the gentle and the blessed The pain of Nubia is only for the moment the desolate the suffering the plundered, the opressed Nehebka:
The gods love Nubia, their glorious creation Its songs roll sweetly across the harvest plain Nehebka & Aida:
The tears of Nubia, a passing aberration They wash into the river and are never cried again Nehebka, Aida, Mereb, and Nubian Woman:
The gods love Nubia, we have to keep believing The scattered and divided, we are still it's heart Aida:
The fall of Nubia, ephemeral and fleeting The spirit always burning though the flesh is torn apart. All:
The fall of Nubia Ephemeral and fleeting The spirit always burning Though the flesh is torn apart Take me in my dreams recurring Cheerful as a childhood dance Into one more taste of freedom One more longing backward glance The gods love Nubia, the beautiful, the golden The radiant, the fertile, the gentle and the blessed The pain of Nubia is only for the moment the desolate the suffering the plundered, the opressed The gods love Nubia we have to keep believing Though scattered and divided we are still it's heart The fall of Nubia ephemeral and fleeting the spirit always Burning though the flesh is torn apart The spirit always burning though the flesh is torn apart Aida:
Apart All:
Take me in my dreams recurring One more longing backward glance

A Step Too Far

Amneris:
It's so strange he doesn't show me more affection than he needs Almost formal too respectful never takes romantic leads There are times when I imagine I'm not always on his mind He's not thinking what I'm thinking Always half a step behind Always half a step behind Oh,oh,oh,oh Oh,oh,oh,oh Oh,oh,oh,oh Radames:
I'm in every kind of trouble Can't you tell, just look at me Half ecstatic,half dejected All in all I'm all at sea Easy terms I thought I wanted Fill me now with chilling dread You could never know the chaos Of a life turned on it's head Of a life turned on it's head Oh,oh,oh,oh Radames and Amneris:
Oh,oh,oh,oh Oh,oh,oh,oh Oh,oh,oh,oh Aida:
I am certain that I love him But a love can be misplaced Have I compromissed my people In my passion and my haste? I could be his life companion Anywhere but where we are Am I leader? Am I traitor? Did I take a step too far? Amneris, Radames and Aida sing their verses at once.
The last line of each verse is repeated. Aida:
Oh,oh,oh,oh Aida & Radames:
Oh,oh,oh,oh Aida, Radames & Amneris:
Oh,oh,oh,oh Oh,oh,oh,oh Oh,oh,oh,oh Oh,oh,oh,oh Oh,oh,oh,oh Did I take a step too far!

Easy As Life

Aida:
This is the moment when the gods expect me To beg for help but I won't even try I want nothing in this world but myself to protect me But I won't lie down, roll over and die All I have to do is to forget how much I love him All I have to do is put my longing to one side Tell myself that love's an ever-changing situation Passion would have cooled and all the magic would have died It's easy, it's easy All I have to do is to pretend I never knew him On those very rare occasions when he steals into my heart Better to have lost him when the ties were barely binding Better the contempt of the familiar cannot start It's easy, It's easy Until I think about him as he was when I last touched him And how he would have been were I to be with him today Those very rare occasions don't let up they keep on coming All I ever wanted and I'm throwing it away It's easy, it's easy as life But then I saw the faces of a worn , defeated people A father and a nation who won't let a coward run is this how the gods reward the faithful through the ages ? Forcing us to prove the hardest thing we've done Are easy So easy And though I'll think about him til the earth draws in around me And though I choose to leave him for another kind of love There is no denial, no betrayal but redemption Redeemed in my own eyes and in the pantheon above It's easy It's easy as life It's easy as life It's easy as life

Like Father, Like Son

Zoser:
Don't come on so cocksure boy, you can't escape your genes No point in feeling pure boy, your background intervenes Listen good and listen straight, you're not the master of your fate To this you must be reconciled, you'll always be your father's child At times acclaimed, at times reviled You'll wind up doing just what I've done Like father, like son Radames:
Don't assume your vices get handed down the line That a parent's blood suffices to condemn the child's design I've done wrong, I can't deny, but at least I know that I Shouldn't blame that on my stock, this may come as quite a shock I'm no chip off any block, I wouldn't wish those words on anyone Like father, like son Zoser:
Son you're nervous, take my hand All is settled,all is planned You've got the world at your command I don't think you understand Radames:
I appreciate too well The squalor at which you excel it isn't very hard to tell Evil's a distinctive smell Zoser:
He's lost all sense of reason, and why? Some foreign slut That is the road called treason, Some doors are slamming shut Just like me he's found that flesh can excite but will enmesh Once we rid him of this blight. Once this harlot's out of sight. Then I think he'll see the light. He won't walk back to daddy he will run. Like father, like son...

Radames' Letter

Radames:
I'm sorry for everything I've said And for anything I forgot to say When things get so complicated I stumble at best muddle through I wish that our lives could be simple I don't want the world only you Oh I wish I could tell you this face to face But there's never the time never the place So this letter will have to do I love you....

How I Know You (Reprise)

Mereb:
There is a time there is a place When love should conquer all The rest of life is pushed aside as truth and reason fall But only if that selfishness can lead to something good I thought I knew you princess But I never understood I don't know you I don't know you

Written In The Stars

Aida:
I am here to tell you we can never meet again Simple really, isn't it, a word or two and then A lifetime of not knowing where or how or why or when You think of me or speak of me and wonder what befell The someone you once loved so long ago so well Radames:
Never wonder what I'll feel as living shuffles by You don't have to ask me and I need not reply Every moment of my life from now until I die I will think or dream of you and fail to understand How a perfect love can be confounded out of hand Is it written in the stars Are we paying for some crime Is that all that we are good for Just a stretch of mortal time For some God's experiment In which we have no say In which we're given paradise But only for a day Aida:
Nothing can be altered, there is nothing to decide No escape, no change of heart, no anyplace to hide Radames:
You are all I'll ever want, but this I am denied Sometimes in my darkest thoughts, I wish I'd never learned Aida & Radames:
What it is to be in love and have that love returned Aida:
Is it written in the stars Are we paying for some crime Is that all that we are good for Just a stretch of mortal time Aida & Radames:
For some God's experiment In which we have no say In which we're given paradise But only for a day

I Know The Truth

Amneris:
How did I come to this? How did I slip and fall? How did I throw half a lifetime away Without any thought at all? This should have been my time It's over, it never began I closed my eyes to so much for so long and I no longer can I try to blame it on fortune Some kind of shift in a star But I know the truth and it haunts me it's flown just a little too far I know the truth and it mocks me I know the truth and it shocks me It's flown just a little too far. Why do I want him still? Why when there's nothing there? How to go on with the rest of my life To pretend I don't care This should've been my time It's over-It never began I closed my eyes to so much for so long and I no longer can I try to blame it on fortune Some kind of twist in my fate But I know the truth and it haunts me I learned it a little too late Oh I know the trth and it mocks me I know the truth and it shocks me I learned it a little too late Too late

Elaborate Lives (Reprise)

Aida:
We all lead such elaborate lives Wild ambitions in our sights How an affair of the heart suvives Days apart and hurried nights Seems quite unbelievable to me I don''t want to live like that Seems quite unbelievable to me I don't want to love like that I just want our time to be Slower and gentler,wiser, free We all live in extravagant times Playing games we all can't win Unintended emotional crimes take some out take others in Too many choices tear us apart I don't want to live like that Too many choices tear us apart I don't want to love like that I just want to keep your heart May this confession be the start I know you'll give me courage to face what I must face with all these complications in another time and place Aida and Radames:
We all lead such elaborate lives We don't know whose words are true An affair of the heart survives All the pain the world can do Radames:
I'm so tired of all we're going through I don't want to live like that Aida:
I'm so tired of all we're going through I don't want to love like that I just want to be with you Now and forever peaceful, true

Enchantment Passing Through (Reprise)

Radames:
There'll be no ties of time and space to bind us Aida:
And no horizon we shall not pursue Radames and Aida:
We'll leave the world's misfortunes far behind us And I will put my faith and trust in you

Every Story Is A Love Story (Reprise)

Amneris:
From deep within a tomb A gentle light still shone Showing me my path As I ascended to the throne Certain in my heart That ancient wars must cease The lovers' deaths gave birth to a reign of peace And their story And my journey And the lesson they provide Draw their strength and inspiration from a love that never dies

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