And one thought crystallizes like an icy blast

My children, like most other girls under 10, are completely obsessed with this woman and her song.  Hattie likes to roll around the swimming pool singing the chorus over and over again.  She really wants to be Elsa when she grows up, and is looking forward to building her own ice palace and letting all of us go just as soon as she can.  My baby is growing up, and while she sometimes clings on to her babyhood - baby voice, refusing to have adult cutlery or china plates, she's got one eye on the horizon, keen to get a move on with it all.  It makes me a bit sad to think about too much, so I don't.

What I focus on is the whole "fuck it all" selfish liberation aspect of the song.  Let it go, the cold doesn't bother me, I don't care what they're going to say, I never asked to be born, just put up with it.  It's a gateway song to other adolescent shouting songs, and it says volumes about my musical taste that I genuinely love this song, and encourage the girls to sing it whenever they want.  I even love the sexy make-over Elsa gives herself; why not wear practically nothing in the middle of coldest winter in history, I am the SNOW QUEEN.  It's no different to the ripping up of the uniform and writing on school shirts that we did at school - you made me wear this, I'm going to do this to it.  In short, it's very adolescent.

I'm not so keen on the selfishness; after all, Elsa might not mind being cold, but the rest of the kingdom did, and her rejection of the good girl she was expected to be was also a rejection of her sister who only ever wanted to love her and be loved in return.  We talk a lot about the film, analysing it in a very amateurish way; it's Lucy's first introduction to critical thinking, and the film is so different to other Disney princess films, so it provides good contrast.  Lucy is impressed that the girls rescue themselves, and she's starting to understand the message of the film, which is, as I read it, learn to love yourself as you are.

Cleverer people than I have written about the song and the film here and here, and this is a genuinely interesting musicologist's view of the song, which is worth 10 minutes of your time.

In the meantime, plait your hair, slip on your turquoise nightie and belt out the song at the top of your voice.