Wilkommen Lyrics – Cabaret

Song Overview

Personal Review

Willkommen greets the audience like a champagne cork—festive pop, then a hiss of danger beneath the foam. Joel Grey’s sly conférencier purrs in three languages, promising pleasure while the band saws out a Weimar-tinted bump-and-grind. Each lyric flickers between cabaret sparkle and looming dread, the perfect overture to Kander & Ebb’s fever-dream Berlin.

Snapshot: the curtain rises; neon blushes the smoke; the Emcee bows, “Leave your troubles outside!”—even as real-world storm clouds gather beyond the club doors.

Song Meaning and Annotations

Composed by John Kander with lyrics by Fred Ebb, “Willkommen” opened Cabaret in 1966 and redefined what a Broadway curtain-raiser could be. Instead of grand overture, we get a grinning emcee coaxing us past moral guardrails. The multi-lingual greeting—Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome—mirrors cosmopolitan Berlin in 1929 yet hints at a country splintering under rising nationalism.

The Emcee’s patter—

In here life is beautiful…the girls are beautiful…even the orchestra is beautiful

Kander once called the piece “a smiling mask with cracked porcelain.” That crack widens in every major revival—from Alan Cumming’s raunchy 1998 leer to Eddie Redmayne’s haunted 2021 whisper—each new Emcee reshaping the song to fit contemporary anxieties.

Verse Highlights

Opening Refrain

The melody ascends chromatically on each language shift—German to French to English—mirroring a staircase into the club’s neon underworld.

Spoken Patter

Grey breaks meter, riffing in vaudeville cadence: jokes about virgins, girls too hot to keep clothed, winter outside versus heat within. Rhythm stalls, then snaps back into the vamp—comedy as anesthetic.

Ensemble Kickline

The Kit Kat Girls’ chorus answers in stacked triads, their tight harmonies masking collective desperation; harmony literally dresses poverty in sparkle.

Song Credits

• Featuring: Joel Grey (Emcee)
• Producer: Goddard Lieberson
• Composer: John Kander
• Lyricist: Fred Ebb
• Release Date: November 28, 1966 (cast album)
• Genre: Show tune, jazz-cabaret
• Instruments: Piano, banjo, violin, cello, trumpet, trombone, clarinet, alto sax, tuba, drums, accordion
• Label: Columbia Masterworks (now Sony Masterworks)
• Mood: Seductive, sardonic, foreboding
• Length: 5 min 09 sec
• Track #: 1
• Language: German, French, English
• Album: Cabaret (Original Broadway Cast Recording)
• Music style: 6/8 vamp with Klezmer-tinged chromaticism
• Poetic meter: Trochaic dimeter laced with patter cadences
• Copyrights: © 1966 Tams-Witmark; ? 1966 Columbia Records

Songs Exploring Themes of Invitation & Escape

“Magic to Do” (Pippin, 1972) opens with Ben Vereen’s Leading Player coaxing the crowd into danger disguised as delight—“We’ve got magic to do, just for you.” Bob Fosse’s angular choreography and bright horns shimmer like the Emcee’s grin, promising spectacle while concealing existential stakes.

“La Vie Bohème” (Rent, 1996) throws its arms open to New York’s East Village misfits—an ecstatic roll-call of food, art, protest, sex. Jonathan Larson’s salsa-rock pulse invites outsiders to join the tribe, echoing “Willkommen”’s plea: leave your troubles outside, even if the rent’s overdue.

“Welcome to the Rock” (Come From Away, 2017) greets stranded 9/11 travelers in Newfoundland with Celtic stomp and communal warmth. Beneath the generosity lies global terror, just as the Kit Kat Klub masks impending fascism, proving that hospitality often blooms beside catastrophe.

Questions and Answers

Who first performed “Willkommen” on Broadway?

Joel Grey introduced the song at the Broadhurst Theatre on November 20, 1966, originating the Emcee role.

Why are three languages used in the refrain?

German, French, and English reflect Berlin’s cosmopolitan nightlife while hinting at the disorienting code-switching of a society on the brink of upheaval.

Which major revivals re-imagined the Emcee?

Alan Cumming’s 1998 Broadway revival amped the sexuality; Eddie Redmayne’s 2021 London staging leaned into unsettling whisper and androgyny.

Did the original cast album chart?

While exact Billboard peaks are unverified, the album sold steadily through the late 1960s and re-entered catalog sales upon the 1972 film’s success.

Is “Willkommen” ever cut from productions?

Rarely; the song is integral to the show’s framing device. Even film and concert adaptations retain it, often using it as the overture.

Awards and Chart Positions

The original Broadway production of Cabaret swept the 1967 Tony Awards with eight wins—including Best Musical, Best Original Score, and Best Actor for Joel Grey.

The 1998 Roundabout revival claimed four Tonys, among them Best Revival of a Musical and acting trophies for Alan Cumming and Natasha Richardson.

Grey also clinched an Academy Award for reprising the Emcee in Bob Fosse’s 1972 film, making “Willkommen” one of the rare songs to earn its performer both Tony and Oscar gold.

How to Sing?

Keep the vamp sauntering at ~104 bpm. Place consonants forward—Will-komm-en—letting each language switch sparkle. Pepper spoken asides with sly rubato, then snap back on beat three to maintain the 6/8 groove. Belt the climactic “to Cabaret!” on open vowels, but smile vocally—danger tastes sweeter wrapped in sugar.