You Will Be Found Lyrics - Dear Evan Hansen

Song Overview

Act 1 of Dear Evan Hansen crests on “You Will Be Found,” the show’s big-tent anthem where a stammered memorial speech tilts into a swelling pop ballad and, in the world of the story, into virality. It’s the moment when Evan’s private ache gets translated into public language: a promise that isolation can be answered if someone reaches back.

Review and Highlights

As a piece of theater-pop writing, “You Will Be Found” pivots from hushed confession to gospel-lift. The piano ostinato lays the path; strings widen the frame; ensemble voices keep adding air under the melody until the lyric lands like a promise. What begins as Evan’s shaking voice becomes a chorus of thousands inside the story, which the orchestration mirrors with incremental layers and a bright, forward-pushing backbeat.

Highlights:

• Structure that moves - verse to speech to anthem, mirroring Evan’s arc from silence to signal.
• Hook that earns it - the title phrase repeats, not as padding, but as the core message reframed by new harmonies and more voices.
• Digital chorus - the show uses onstage screens and offstage “virtual voices” to sound like a newsfeed gathering speed, a clever staging-musical synthesis.

Creation History

“You Will Be Found” was shaped Off-Broadway as the replacement for the earlier Act 1 closer “A Part of Me.” The writing team leaned into a contemporary pop language so the number could plausibly go viral inside the plot while still feeling like musical theater.

Song Meaning and Annotations

Plot

Evan takes the stage at a school assembly, clutching note cards and a borrowed tie. He falters. Then he starts again, speaking directly about loneliness and the wish to be seen. A student records the moment; the video catches fire; comments and shares cascade across the set’s screens. Inside the show, that viral wave fuels The Connor Project and pulls Evan into the center of a story he’s been inventing.

Song Meaning

The song reframes a private plea as communal reassurance. It’s not just about one boy being “found”; it’s about building a chorus large enough that nobody falls unheard. The message is simple on purpose. In the theater, simplicity lets harmony and orchestration do the heavy lifting.

Message, mood, context: a promise of connection sung in pop-gospel clothing; mood shifts from tentative to exultant; context ties directly to the show’s themes of truth, performance, and the way the internet can feel like community and distortion at once.

Annotations

“In the show, immediately prior to the song beginning, Cynthia gives Evan a tie… Evan wears this tie as he is stammering through a speech.”

That tiny prop choice sets status and motive: Evan is literally wearing the Murphys’ hope.

“Have you ever felt like nobody was there?”

Classic pop technique: open with questions the audience can echo internally, then offer the answer as the chorus.

“That was the gift he gave me, to show me that I wasn’t alone.”

He’s confessing a real feeling inside a false narrative, which is why the anthem lands and still troubles us later.

“‘Cause when you don’t feel strong enough to stand, you can reach…”

The lyric strips out plot specifics so the hook can travel. Onstage, that universality pairs with the visual of screens filling with messages.

“So let the sun come streamin’ in.”

A recurring image in the show: stepping out of shadow, stepping into exposure. Here the sun is both healing light and the glare of attention.

Production and instrumentation

Pulse on piano, strings adding lift, guitars tucked under for sheen, and stacked ensemble harmonies that nudge the chorus toward a pop-choir crest. The sixteenth-note pattern under the back half functions like a rising floor, carrying the ensemble through “you are not alone.”

Emotional arc

Starts tentative, turns expansive, ends with a communal canon. Evan’s voice initiates; the community answers; finally Evan reenters that collective sound, not as an outsider but as part of the chord.

Cultural touchpoints

The number’s spread beyond the show is built in. It’s been covered in telecasts and competitions, adapted in a charity mashup, and re-recorded for the film’s credits. The hooks were engineered to live outside the proscenium.

Key Facts

• Artist: Ben Platt, Kristolyn Lloyd, Will Roland, Laura Dreyfuss & Original Broadway Cast of Dear Evan Hansen
• Composer/Lyricists: Benj Pasek, Justin Paul
• Producer: Stacey Mindich; album production also credited to Alex Lacamoire, Benj Pasek, Justin Paul
• Release Date: February 3, 2017
• Album: Dear Evan Hansen (Original Broadway Cast Recording)
• Genre: Show tune, pop ballad
• Length: 6:01
• Label: Atlantic Records
• Instruments noted: piano, strings, guitars, electric bass, drum kit; large ensemble voices
• Mood: consoling, expansive, communal
• Language: English
• Music style: theater-pop with gospel-tinged choral build

Questions and Answers

Who produced “You Will Be Found”?

Stacey Mindich is credited as producer of the cast recording, alongside album production by Alex Lacamoire, Benj Pasek, and Justin Paul.

When was it released?

February 3, 2017, as part of the Original Broadway Cast Recording.

Who wrote it?

Music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul.

Where does it sit in the show?

It closes Act 1, turning Evan’s halting memorial remarks into a full-ensemble anthem that goes viral within the story.

What notable versions exist outside the show?

Sam Smith with Summer Walker recorded a film-soundtrack cover in 2021; Ben Platt and Lin-Manuel Miranda’s charity mashup “Found/Tonight” blends this chorus with “The Story of Tonight.”

Awards and Chart Positions

• Album chart: the cast album reached the top 10 on the Billboard 200 (No. 8).
• Grammy: Dear Evan Hansen won Best Musical Theater Album at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards.
• Certification: the cast album has been certified Gold.
• Film version: Sam Smith with Summer Walker released a cover for the 2021 film; that version reached No. 28 on New Zealand’s Hot Singles chart.
• Charity single crossover: “Found/Tonight” by Ben Platt and Lin-Manuel Miranda, blending this chorus with Hamilton, was released as a benefit single for March For Our Lives.

How to Sing You Will Be Found

Vocal range & key: published arrangements commonly sit around B major or its relative G sharp minor for contemporary voices, with plenty of accessible choral versions. Expect a mid-voice verse that climbs through sustained A4–B4 territory for tenors and high baritones, with optional top notes in ensemble codas.

Breath & phrasing: the verse wants a single, buoyant breath through each question. Save dynamic headroom for the second chorus; keep consonants crisp so the repeated hook stays clear as textures thicken.

Tempo & feel: moderate pop ballad pulse. Lock with the piano’s steady subdivisions; avoid rushing the back-half build.

Tone choices: start intimate and speech-adjacent, then spin a brighter mix as the ensemble stacks in. Think “confession to congregation.”

Additional Info

• Film use: appears as a set-piece in the 2021 film; the end credits feature the Sam Smith with Summer Walker cover.
• Broadcast footprint: the song’s message made it a go-to for television performances and competitions.
• Crossover moment: the March 2018 “Found/Tonight” release tied Broadway’s language of solidarity to real-world activism.