Ilium Lyrics – All Songs from the Musical

“Ilium” – The Musical Guide & Song Meanings

Review: Ilium’s lyrics are already picking a fight with fate

Ilium is not “out” in the normal cast-album sense, at least not as of January 27, 2026. What exists publicly is the thing Rivera-Herrans does best: a trail of drafts, progress videos, and teaser snippets that let you watch the writing while it is still getting its elbows sharp. That changes how “lyrics” function here. They are not a finished text. They are a live lab.

Still, the early material shows a clear lyrical agenda. “Fire” appears to open in Troy with Priam pressing Cassandra about prophecy, and the language leans into two pressures at once: royal denial versus prophetic overload. The words move like an argument, not a poem. Short lines, direct address, interruption, a repeated “Ilium” refrain that reads like Cassandra’s nervous system glitching in real time. Even as a fragment, it is character-forward writing.

Musically, Ilium looks positioned to keep the Epic pipeline: pop-forward hooks built over theatre logic, plus a social-media-first release model that makes motif-spotting part of the fandom’s sport. The Guardian’s reporting on Epic’s TikTok-driven creation helps explain why Ilium can exist as “public drafting” without feeling like a marketing stunt. The process is the product, for now.

Listener tip, since there is no full track list to binge yet: treat each snippet like a scene card. Note who is speaking, what they want, and which words repeat. Repetition is rarely filler in Rivera-Herrans’s writing. It is usually a breadcrumb.

How it was made: the Iliad follow-up, announced in public

In June 2025, Rivera-Herrans publicly announced he was beginning a second musical titled “Ilium,” inspired by Homer’s Iliad. Wikipedia’s summary of Epic’s “Future” section even cites his “Back in business” announcement and frames Ilium as the next Homeric swing after Odyssey. That matters for the lyrics, because the Iliad is less “journey home” and more “what rage costs,” which tends to produce sharper language and more moral splinters.

By mid-2025 into late-2025, he was also posting explicit progress updates: “Fire” as the first song he is wrestling with, “Pride of Troy” as another early piece, and “Shine Upon You” as a current work-in-progress focus in a later update. The refreshingly unpolished detail is the point. He repeatedly describes these songs as difficult, which is the closest thing you will get to a napkin story right now: the material is being built under deadline stress, on camera.

Experience-based caution for readers hunting full lyrics: many uploads and “with lyrics” videos are fan-assembled composites. They can be useful for context, but they are not authoritative texts. If you want the cleanest paper trail, start with the posts and videos published under Rivera-Herrans’s own accounts, then cross-check against any unofficial transcriptions.

Key tracks & scenes

“Fire” (Priam)

The Scene:

Troy, before it burns. Priam confronts Cassandra and demands coherence from her prophecy. It plays like court politics with an alarm bell underneath it, the king insisting on order while the prophet cannot stop seeing the ending.

Lyrical Meaning:

Priam’s lines read as power trying to negotiate with reality. The tension is that he does not ask “is it true,” he asks “say it in a way I can live with.”

“Fire” (Cassandra)

The Scene:

Cassandra’s refrain repeats the city’s name, a vocal tic that suggests vision overload. Even in draft form, it functions like a stage direction: she is not being “mysterious,” she is being crushed by knowledge.

Lyrical Meaning:

Repetition becomes psychological texture. The lyric does not decorate prophecy; it shows prophecy as a loop you cannot close.

“Fire” (Priam & Cassandra)

The Scene:

The argument tightens into a shared moment of dread: he wants her to “pull yourself together,” she cannot. The scene becomes a duet of control versus inevitability.

Lyrical Meaning:

This is an Iliad thesis in miniature: leadership demands certainty, war produces uncertainty, and the truth arrives anyway.

“Pride of Troy” (workshop chorus)

The Scene:

A public-facing number, based on the released snippet: big communal identity, the city selling itself to itself. Think banners, bright confidence, the kind of song that makes later devastation sting harder.

Lyrical Meaning:

It is the story’s self-mythologizing engine. “Pride” is not just emotion here. It is policy.

“Pride of Troy” (composer commentary mode)

The Scene:

In at least one update-style video, Rivera-Herrans talks through Ilium progress while sharing musical material. That turns “scene placement” into something meta: the musical is also a narrative about making a musical, in public.

Lyrical Meaning:

Even without new lines, the meaning shifts because the framing shifts. A patriotic hook hits differently when you hear it as a draft under revision pressure.

“Shine Upon You” (in-progress sketch)

The Scene:

As of an October 2025 update, this is a song he identifies as the current struggle. Without a confirmed character list attached publicly, the safest read is functional: a blessing song, a favor-request, or a cruel irony aimed at someone the gods intend to break.

Lyrical Meaning:

The title itself carries a loaded promise: divine attention as comfort, or divine attention as target.

“Ilium (Name-Refrain Motif)” (Cassandra’s nervous system)

The Scene:

In “Fire,” the city’s name repeats like a warning siren. If this becomes a recurring motif across songs, it could operate as Troy’s musical signature, the way some shows tag a place with a recognizable melodic fingerprint.

Lyrical Meaning:

When a name becomes a chant, it stops being geography and starts being fate. That is a very Iliad problem.

Live updates (current as of January 27, 2026)

Ilium is publicly positioned as a new musical by Jorge Rivera-Herrans, announced June 24, 2025, and still in active development through late-2025 and into 2026. Multiple progress and snippet videos exist for “Fire,” “Pride of Troy,” and “Shine Upon You.” As of today’s date, there is no confirmed full track list, no announced cast, and no announced premiere or tour schedule in the publicly indexed sources cited below.

What is concrete is the release behavior: Rivera-Herrans continues to publish short-form updates and snippets under his own name and accounts. For audiences, that means “release date” talk on social platforms is often aspirational, not official. Treat it like chatter until it is attached to an official post that clearly states a date, format (album, stage, film), and rights holder.

Practical follow strategy: save the official snippet posts you trust, then re-check them every few months. In projects like this, small changes in a chorus or a character label can reveal major story decisions.

Notes & trivia

• Ilium was announced publicly on June 24, 2025, as a new Iliad-inspired musical by Rivera-Herrans.
• “Fire” is identified as the first song he shared progress on, and he has repeatedly described it as difficult to finish.
• “Pride of Troy” has been shared as a snippet in at least one widely viewed short-form post/video under his name.
• In an October 2025 update, Rivera-Herrans explicitly names “Shine Upon You” as a current work-in-progress focus.
• Unofficial lyric postings for “Fire (Draft)” circulate online with character labels (Priam/Cassandra), but they should be treated as non-authoritative transcriptions unless they match the official audio and captions.
• The creative model echoes Epic’s community-forward development, which major press has already framed as part of how TikTok is reshaping musical theatre pipelines.

Reception: early buzz, and the shadow of Epic

Because Ilium is not formally released, “reception” is mostly about process rather than product: fans reacting to snippets, and observers watching a new kind of musical creation play out in public. The most useful critical context comes from coverage of Epic, which set audience expectations for how Rivera-Herrans writes: motif-heavy, platform-native, and unusually transparent about drafts.

The Guardian has described him as a figure in a larger shift, where TikTok becomes both workshop and stage door. That matters for Ilium’s lyrics because it changes the social contract: audiences do not just interpret the words, they watch the words get rewritten.

“TikTok has become an innovative platform for musical theatre.”

“A concept musical … found its start on TikTok.”

“In June 2025 … beginning work on a second musical titled Ilium.”

My mildly skeptical take: the public-draft model is thrilling, but it can also inflate expectations into a schedule. If Ilium’s best lyric choices require slow revisions, the internet will have to tolerate the boring part: waiting for the right words.

Quick facts

• Title: Ilium
• Year: 2026 (in development; announced June 24, 2025)
• Type: Original musical project (publicly shared via snippets and progress updates)
• Creator (music/lyrics): Jorge Rivera-Herrans
• Source inspiration: Homer’s Iliad (as publicly described)
• Confirmed public song titles so far: “Fire,” “Pride of Troy,” “Shine Upon You”
• Album status: Unreleased; no full official track list or release date confirmed in cited indexed sources
• Selected notable placements: Short-form snippet videos and progress updates under Rivera-Herrans’s official channels

Frequently asked questions

Is Ilium a full stage musical yet?

As of January 27, 2026, Ilium is publicly presented as a work in progress shared through snippets and updates. No official stage production dates are confirmed in the indexed sources cited.

Who is writing Ilium’s lyrics?

Jorge Rivera-Herrans is publicly identified as the creator, and his posts and videos are the primary source for the project’s early material.

Is there an official cast recording?

Not yet. Snippets exist for multiple songs, but an official released album is not confirmed in the cited sources.

What songs are confirmed so far?

Publicly shared titles include “Fire,” “Pride of Troy,” and “Shine Upon You,” based on Rivera-Herrans’s snippet and update videos and indexed references.

Where can I read the lyrics?

Full official lyric sheets have not been confirmed as published. Some fan transcriptions circulate, but the most reliable approach is to use the official snippet audio and captions as your reference.

Is Ilium connected to EPIC: The Musical?

Yes in authorship and approach: it is positioned as a second Homeric project by the same creator, following Epic’s Odyssey adaptation and its social-media-first development model.

Key contributors

Name	Role	Contribution
Jorge Rivera-Herrans	Creator (music/lyrics/production, publicly documented)	Originator of Ilium; releases progress updates and snippets including “Fire,” “Pride of Troy,” and “Shine Upon You.”
Homer	Source author	Ancient source text influence (Iliad) that Ilium is publicly described as drawing from.
Online fan community	Community ecosystem	Contextual influence on the project’s development model, consistent with press coverage of Epic’s participatory pipeline.

Sources: Jorge Rivera-Herrans (official snippet/progress videos), The Guardian, The Daily Iowan, Wikipedia (Epic: The Musical), Lyricstranslate (unofficial draft transcription reference).