Tomorrow Belongs to Me Lyrics – Cabaret

Song Overview

“Tomorrow Belongs to Me” appears midway through Cabaret (1966), disguised as a lush folk hymn but functioning as the musical’s Nazi alarm bell. While the original Broadway LP never charted as a single, the cast album went Gold in the U.S. and won the 1967 Grammy for Best Score From an Original Cast Show.

Personal Review

A placid waltz in 3/4 wafts in on accordion and strings. The boy soprano (Felix) sings of meadows, stags, and lindens—images borrowed from German Volkslieder. Mid-verse, muted brass sneaks in, a martial undercurrent you feel before you hear. By the bellowing “Vaterland …” the key shifts up a major third; men’s voices join, forte, the harmony tightening like a noose. One-sentence snapshot: a lullaby that curdles into goose-step prophecy.

Song Meaning and Dramaturgy

Double disguise. Kander & Ebb wrote an original tune that sounds like a 1930s German folk anthem; audiences often mistake it for an authentic Nazi song.

Staging shifts. 1966: sung by youthful waiter quartet at the Kit Kat Klub. 1972 film: a Hitler-youth solo in a Bavarian biergarten. 1998/2014 revivals: prerecorded boy soprano (off-stage) to heighten unease. Each version re-anchors the number at a different rung on the fascist ladder.

Lyric mechanics. Natural beauty (stag, Rhine, linden) morphs into blood-and-soil nationalism by Verse 2’s “fatherland, show us the sign.” The melodic line stays gentle—terror arrives through collective harmony, not a minor key.

“Gather together to greet the storm?…”

The storm is both meteorological and ideological: Hitler’s Sturmabteilung and the tempest of war.

Verse Highlights

Opening Image

Celeste + flute evoke pastoral innocence.

Shift to Choir

Trombones add parallel fifths—subtle Teutonic coloring.

Climactic “Tomorrow”

Key change + bass drum roll; optimism weaponised.

Song Credits

• Lead Vocal (Felix): Robert Sharp
• Composers–Lyricists: John Kander & Fred Ebb
• Producer: Goddard Lieberson
• Musical Director: Harold Hastings
• Album Release: 28 Nov 1966 (Columbia Masterworks)
• Genre: Broadway Folk-Hymn Pastiche
• Length: 1 min 55 s
• © 1966 Sunbeam Music / Kander & Ebb

Songs with Dark-Past Patriotism

“Die Gedanken Sind Frei” – Traditional: A German freedom song later co-opted by multiple regimes—proof melodies outrun morals.

“Tomorrow Is A Latter Day” – Book of Mormon: Satirical optimism masking bleak truth; Kander/Ebb’s influence felt decades later.

“Children of Tomorrow” – American Idiot: Green Day’s punk anthem flips the future-belongs trope into anti-fascist rally.

Questions and Answers

Is the song genuinely from the 1930s?

No—Kander & Ebb wrote it in 1965.

Why do neo-Nazi groups cover it?

They mistake the pastiche for an authentic anthem, overlooking its Jewish gay creators.

Key signature?

G major; modulates up to B-flat for the reprise.

Range for boy soprano?

D4–A5.

Any official single release?

No; it lives only on cast and revival albums.

Awards and Chart Positions

• 1967 Grammy – Best Original Cast Album (entire score) — Winner
• 2006 Library of Congress – Cabaret score inducted to National Recording Registry.

How to Sing?

Boy Soprano: float pianissimo on “meadow,” save crescendo for “storm.”
Men’s Chorus: start sotto voce; add vibrato only after the key change.
Diction: crisp Germanic consonants without parody.
Tempo: 72 bpm—slower drags, faster loses menace.

Fan and Media Reactions

“The scariest song I’ve ever applauded.”

“When the boy hits ‘fatherland,’ the theatre’s blood runs cold.”

“Proof a beautiful melody can smuggle horror.”