Music Fridays # 185: Making Parents Proud

Children usually have a sense of wanting to make their parents proud and that can often be seen in songs.   Today on Music Fridays (sorry about the year-long hiatus)  I am tackling this subject as this is something that I've wanted to discuss for some time as these three Disney songs 

Proud of Your - Aladdin







This is my favorite Disney song of all time, I have talked about my love for that many a time before.  More than any other song that I have heard from a lead Disney character, this one gets at the idea of just wanting to be good enough in the eyes of parents.  That is never easy but it is something I feel many children struggle with.   As they see their parents as paragons of goodness and believe that they can never live up to their example.



Let Me Make You Proud - Tangled: The Series







Oh... this one hurts.  Go watch Tangled: The Series, that's all I'm gonna say.  This comes from season one's big mid-finale and we see Varian, an ally of Rapunzel who believes he is not good enough in the eyes of his father and through an accident caused by an experiment of Varian,  his father has become entrapped in a strange substance and now Varian is going out to get help that he never gets because the princess is stuck in a tough spot.  Which leads Varian down the path of villainy And throughout the course of the season, we see how twisted Varian becomes in wanting to show his father that he is worthy of being accepted and having his being proud of him.  Honestly, while Proud of Your Boy is my favorite Disney song, this one makes me cry more knowing what happens to Varian.   This moment right here shows the beginning of his downfall and how he goes too far in both trying to save his father and wanting the recognition that he felt he never got from his father.



Make Them Proud - Elena of Avalor









This is another great song and in the top tier of my favorite Elena songs.   One has to understand that this song is set on Day of the Dead and Elena is singing about how she hopes that she can make her deceased parents proud.  Consider these lines right here.

As a Ruler
As a daughter

Small but consider that Elena is now the leader of her country and that is not an easy task for anyone let alone a 17-year old, so yeah that's some burden but more importantly to me is the line "As a daughter",  I look at this as being more important because Elena has those moments where she wishes could just be a daughter again and even though, she still has her grandparents, she has had to take on something of a maternal role for her younger sister, Isabelle and  taking in that context,  I almost view Elena saying that as searching for validation from her parents that she is doing a good job in taking care of Isabelle.


This song may not have the same punch for me as the other two but I still find the message of the song very impactful and that in part comes from how beautifully it is sung by Aimee Carrero.




This Music Fridays was an interesting one to do and I am glad that I was able to get this out of my system as I had been thinking about for some time as these three songs represent an idea that I often think about. Peace!