Ranking The Best Songs From The Iconic Moulin Rouge! Soundtrack From Horny To Heartstring-Tugging

Moulin Rouge! is an undeniable classic. It’s a dramatic tale of love, lust and loss, wrapped in heavenly layers of wild Baz Lurhmann bombast and heart-palpitating sensuality. I would also go so far as to say it has one of the best musical soundtracks of all time.

Seriously, the way in which modern classics are interpolated and moulded into big-band musical theatre numbers, side-by-side with powerful original tunes is unique in its ability to capture the imagination of all. Not to mention, every song plays a key role in propelling the full-blown horniness or immense emotion of every scene to the next dimension.

Luckily for us choreographed-number starved souls, Moulin Rouge! The Musical is hitting the stage in Melbourne this August with a bunch of new tunes in the mix. If you’ve watched the movie hundreds of times, witnessing the classic’s power in a theatre is the perfect way to revisit the magic of the story.

With an incredibly talented cast in tow to sing you through every iconic number, we’ve ranked each track from the soundtrack from straight-up sexy to overblown emotional.

1. Lady Marmalade

It’s a horny anthem for the ages, charged with an unfathomable amount of sexual power. The collaboration between P!nk, Mya, Lil Kim and Christina Aguilera is a straight-up 00s feast, and it set the blueprint for what all pop-girlie collabs for movie soundtracks should be. It’d also be wrong not to mention just how insane the music video is too.

2. El Tango de Roxanne

This number soundtracks one of the most epic dance scenes in cinema and manages to strike that perfect balance between total lust and grandiosity – a tough one to capture. Ewan McGregors soaring vocal solo over the chorus is simply sublime, not to mention they managed to transform an otherwise gaudy Police song into something totally new and exciting.

3. Elephant Love Medley

The intense level of lusty tension between Nicole Kidman and Ewan in this scene is next level. This medley transcends generations of pop culture, combining so many classic tracks – it’s probably the only time you’ll ever hear a KISS song in a musical – highlighting just how out-there the whole shebang is.

4. Nature Boy

There are two versions of this track on the soundtrack, but for the sake of this list, we’ll look at the David Bowie and Massive Attack version. Massive Attack are trip-hop legends (which is inherently a sexy genre), and Bowie was just too iconic, so it’d be rude not to rank highly. Another phenom version of the track that opens the film is also pretty special, as it sets the scene for what’s to come.

5. Sparkling Diamonds

Another classic mash-up moment in the film, spearheaded by horns and percussion aplenty. It’s a rollicking burlesque number and is a bona fide cheek-flusher.

6. Children of the Revolution

This song stands alone as an incredible track in its own right – even if it weren’t part of the grander story, it’d be good. Bono isn’t generally the man for sexy jams, but the industrial vibes of the track take it to the next level. 

7. Because We Can

It’s a Fatboy Slim track on steroids here, and it feels as trippy as it is dance-worthy. The entire fever-dream energy of the movie can be distilled into this one bop. 

8. Your Song

Covering Elton John is no small task, but Ewan really stepped up to the occasion with the soundtrack’s unique take on the OG song’s arrangement. It’s a 10/10 banger.

9. Come What May

No musical is complete without a ballad sung by the two leads that completely encompasses the painfulness of yearning. Come What May is that but on a whole new level. 

If you’re yearning to revisit the wonder of the soundtrack in all its live glory, you can suss tickets for Moulin Rouge! The Musical here.

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