Artist behind EPCOT's Luminous original songs confirms plans to bring soundtrack to streaming platforms

Feb 05, 2024 in "Luminous the Symphony of Us"

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Luminous the Symphony of Us show

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Posted: Monday February 5, 2024 9:16am Et by WDWMAGIC Staff

Sheléa Melody McDonald, who performs the two original songs in EPCOT's new nighttime spectacular Luninous, has confirmed plans to bring the soundtrack to streaming platforms.

Luminous the Symphony of Us show

In a recent post on Instagram, Sheléa replied to a request for the soundtrack to come to streaming and replied, "We're working on it!"

Alongside new arrangements of Disney songs, Luminous includes the original tracks "Heartbeat Symphony," written by Scott Hoying, A.J. Sealy, Sheléa Melody McDonald, and "Beating of Our Hearts," by The Heavyweights - Jack Kugell, Jamie Jones, and Matt Wong.

Luminous the Symphony of Us show

Disney has released soundtracks on streaming platforms for several recent theme park additions, including Harmonious and Journey of Water - Inspired by Moana. The Harmonious soundtrack came to streaming about a month after debuting at EPCOT.

Watch EPCOT's new 'Luminous The Symphony of Us' in this multi-angle video shot over the course of the opening week's performances.

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doctornick7 hours ago

I’m not sure I understand the issue. Wouldn’t they want to see what people think about it compared to a popular past show? Isn’t that the point of the survey?

trainplane38 hours ago

I thought the same but

aladdin20078 hours ago

I don't think they helped themselves any by calling it Luminious,,they should have gone a different direction. Its way too much like its predecessor and basically sounds/looks the same in terms of titles.

wbostic128 hours ago

No insider knowledge, but in my way of thinking, I think they know that no one was really going to compare Luminous to Harmonious, it was always going to be looked at (in the long run) in comparison to ROE. It seemed to me that they were less trying to go above the bar of Harmonious, but instead get closer to that of Illuminations. I also feel like Disney would love to make sure everyone forgets about Harmonious as fast as possible.

mattpeto8 hours ago

I am not convinced that the show isn’t popular. I keep hearing rave reviews here. It’s gotta play out longer.

jrhwdw9 hours ago

Also, how are the Restaurants doing? Honeymoon's over for Luminous??? If true, what now Epcot?

trainplane39 hours ago

@wdwmagic How's the reception going with this show because the fact they're calling out RoE and not Harmonious doesn't seem good?

osian20 hours ago

Just quoting this because I think that's an amazing way of putting it.

Starship82420 hours ago

To me it seems like "Beating of our Hearts" was also going to be the ending song but I don't really know and we might never know. (Unless they shows it in the Epcot special I didn't watch lol, in which case call me out because I'm probably wrong)

TheEPCOTHistorian20 hours ago

Luminous was so different from a development standpoint. There never really was confirmation on just how extensive the musical rewrites were, but I think Heartbeat Symphony was always going to lead. Beating of our Hearts and One Heartbeat were most likely recorded as pop tracks, the post show versions of each. Seems like they then decided which they would use for the finale, and had it recorded with deliberate crescendos for pyrotechnic cues. Eric Tucker was brilliant in his work on Luminous, so that’s also a factor. Brilliant fireworks design will usually just *work* regardless of how the song is recorded because a good designer will know how to supplement the emotion of the audio in a show. This is what took I:RoE from one of the greatest compositions in the last 100 years to one of the greatest pieces of entertainment ever. No, I’m not biased. It’s like poetry, it rhymes. When it’s done right.

osian21 hours ago

I've wondered about this! Was the show built around the song that was presented, or was the song given a structure brief before it was written, e.g. break it down towards the end with a space for that trick, then provide an obvios heartbeat that could synchronise with the red hearts. I mean, the show story must have been designed and scripted and then they commissioned the beginning and ending songs to fit?? Like incidental music for movies - the composer is given the movie edit to fit the music to, right?

TheEPCOTHistorian22 hours ago

The gospel-esque ending of Beating of our Hearts is nearly perfect for the center barge’s final trick. Idk that One Heartbeat sells it as well and it’s such a repetitive song.