THE RUNDOWNComposer Stephen Schwartz wrote two new songs for Wicked: For Good, including “No Place Like Home,” sung by Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba.Schwartz said the song shows “how much she loves Oz,” even if it doesn’t love her back.“When we filmed it, the entire crew was in tears,” Erivo shared.Spoilers below.Wicked: For Good has finally arrived—and it features some brand new music.As previously reported in 2023, composer Stephen Schwartz wrote two new songs for the second installment, one of which is “No Place Like Home,” sung by Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba.She performs the song midway through the film, after discovering that the animals are fleeing Oz, and hopes to convince them to stay and fight the injustices they’re facing.Elphaba begins the track by singing that although Oz has never appreciated her, there’s no place like home: “Why do I love this place / That’s never loved me? / A place that seems to be devolving / And even wanting to? / But Oz is more than just a place / It’s a promise, an idea / And I want to help make it come true.”She goes on to sing, “When you feel you can’t fight anymore / Just tell yoursеlf / There’s no place likе home / When you feel it’s not worth fighting for / Compel yourself / Because there’s no place like home.”Schwartz spoke to ELLE about the purpose the song serves in the overall film. “I don’t want to give spoilers about the end of the movie, but I will say that Elphaba makes a significant sacrifice at the end of her story,” he said.“We all felt it was really important to understand viscerally, to feel how much she loves Oz, how important Oz is as her home, how much she wants it to be a good place, and how ferocious she is about fighting for it. When she’s not able to accomplish her goals in the way that she had hoped to and has to make a great sacrifice in order to do so, you understand what it cost her to do it.”During a soundtrack listening session in New York, Schwartz also noted the parallels the song has with real life.“We’re all living in a country that is not the America we lived in 10 years ago,” he told the audience. “Whether you like it better or you don’t like it as well, there’s no denying that our country is changing around us, and we are not the only nation on Earth that that’s happening to. And so the question is, if it’s not the direction you want your country to go in, what do you do? Do you actually try and resist, which is dangerous and has very little chance of success? Or do you just give up and be like, ‘Okay, well, I’m out of here.’ So I felt that in addition to Elphaba and the story, it has a lot of resonance for us in the world we live in, especially living in America right now.”Separately, Erivo spoke about what it was like to work on the song with Schwartz.“When we filmed it, the entire crew was in tears,” she said on an episode of Variety’s Awards Circuit podcast. “I hope audiences are ready—it’s a song that speaks to the heart of who Elphaba is.”View full post on YouTubeRead the full lyrics below, courtesy of Genius:[Elphaba]Why do I love this placeThat’s never loved me?A place that seems to be devolvingAnd even wanting to?But Oz is more than just a placeIt’s a promise, an ideaAnd I want to help make it come trueWhy should a land have so much meaningWhen dark times befall it?It’s only land, made of dirt and rock and loamIt’s just a place that’s familiarAnd home’s just what we call itBut there’s no place like homeDon’t we all knowThere’s no place like home?When you feel you can’t fight anymoreJust tell yoursеlfThere’s no place likе homeWhen you feel it’s not worth fighting forCompel yourselfBecause there’s no place like homeWhen you want to leaveDiscouraged and resignedThat’s what they want you to doBut think how you will grieveFor all you leave behindOz belongs to you tooThose who would take it from youSpout a lie to sell yourselfYou go their way or goIt’s them we'll be defeatingIf we keep on repeating“There’s no place like home”There’s no place like homeThere’s no place like homeIf we just keep fighting for itWe will win back and restore itThere’s no place like home