Rainbow Tour Lyrics – Evita

Song Overview

Review and Highlights

“Rainbow Tour” is a moving-newsreel set to snare and brass. Che narrates like a hard-bitten correspondent while Perón’s team spins the optics. Spain swoons, Italy bristles, France half-buys it. The chorus keeps chanting success, but the song keeps shading the frame. I hear it as a status report with bite - a ledger balancing adoration, insult, and fatigue as Eva tests her star power across postwar Europe.

Highlights

• Split perspective: Che’s dry commentary counters the supporters’ boosterism, letting the track argue with itself.
• Geopolitical quick-cuts: verses jump from Spain to Italy to France, compressing months of protocol into three taut minutes and change.
• Character turns: Eva swings from triumphant to thin-skinned to spent, a mini-arc that primes Act II’s decline.

Creation History

The number dates back to the 1976 concept album, where it already tracked the 1947 European trip and sat in Act II alongside “Rainbow High.” For Broadway in 1979, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice produced the cast album themselves, keeping the song as the tour’s running commentary with Che at the mic and the advisers echoing party-line optimism.

Song Meaning and Annotations

Plot

Perón hails his wife as the “Rainbow of Argentina,” and off she goes: Spain welcomes her like a saint; Italy is skeptical; France warms then cools. Che reads the room with razor lines while Eva parries insults and brandishes acclaim. The entourage counts crowds and decorations; the narrator counts what those numbers mean.

Song Meaning

The track measures image versus influence. It’s about how a state sells itself abroad, and how celebrity can move where ideology cannot. The message lands with ambiguity: Argentina’s profile rises, but so do doubts. Mood-wise the piece starts cocky, turns barbed in Rome, and ends mixed - “yes and no” - as Eva fades and the parade planning begins.

Annotations

[PERÓN] People of Europe! I send you the Rainbow of Argentina!

The line tees up the 1947 goodwill tour that followed Juan Perón’s 1946 victory. Spain comes first, where Eva receives pageantry and adulation before the itinerary widens to soften the optics of visiting Franco.

New world Madonna

A cheeky prophecy - in 1996, Madonna played Eva in the film adaptation. The phrase also frames Eva as a sainted modern icon, which the Spanish crowds and press leaned into.

General Franco

Spain’s ruler from 1939 to 1975, Franco appears here as a mirror for Perón’s durability. The lyric’s jab - “if you’re prettier than General Franco, that’s not hard” - keeps the praise crooked.

Franco’s reign in Spain should see out the forties

Che’s calculus: a stable ally. Historically, Franco did outlast the decade and kept power until his death, which helps explain why Spain rolled out such ceremony for Eva.

Your wife’s a phenomenal asset - your trump card

The chorus states what the show dramatizes: Eva’s charisma bolstered Perón’s project at home and abroad, though illness soon narrowed her runway.

They equate Perón with Mussolini - can’t think why

Che’s shrug carries history: Peronism borrowed tactics and aesthetics that Europeans, fresh from war, read as too familiar.

[EVA] Did you hear that? They called me a whore!

The escort’s “it’s an easy mistake” quip lands as a bitter pun on labels that outlive behavior. It also underlines the gendered vitriol Eva drew, where political critique often slid into moral policing.

Pope ... Papal decoration

Eva met Pius XII in Rome and received a rosary rather than a formal decoration - a small but telling diplomatic signal amid the Vatican’s careful choreography.

A qualified — Yes!

The chorus wants a clean verdict; Che won’t give them one. That hedged “yes” is the song in miniature: optics say triumph, the data says “mostly.”

Face the facts, the Rainbow’s started to fade ... I don’t think she’ll make it to England now

Fatigue creeps in. Plans for Britain evaporate after a perceived snub. The public excuse is “exhaustion,” which the musical threads into Eva’s declining health.

Rhythm and Orchestration

A brisk, martial pulse drives the scene: dry snare, cut brass, strings in clipped figures. It plays like a dispatch - facts first, flourish later. When Eva interjects, vowels brighten and the texture briefly blooms before Che drags it back to the audit.

Production and Performance

On the Original Broadway Cast recording, Mandy Patinkin narrates with scalpel diction, Bob Gunton grounds Perón’s authority, and Patti LuPone flashes star wattage in quick strikes. The arrangement keeps the energy moving - no indulgence, just pageant and pushback.

Cultural and Historical Touchpoints

Postwar Europe was rebuilding institutions and reputations. Eva’s tour tested whether charisma could outrun suspicion about Perón’s politics. The song captures the friction of that experiment in under five minutes.

Key Facts

• Artist: Original Broadway Cast of Evita feat. Mandy Patinkin, Patti LuPone, Bob Gunton
• Composer: Andrew Lloyd Webber
• Lyricist: Tim Rice
• Producers: Andrew Lloyd Webber, Tim Rice
• Album: Evita (Original Cast Recording)
• Release Date: 1979
• Label: MCA Records
• Length: 4:47
• Genre: Musical theatre with pop-rock detailing
• Instruments: orchestra with prominent snare, brass, strings, guitar, keyboards
• Language: English
• Mood: triumphal spin meets skeptical commentary
• Track #: 14 on the 1979 Broadway album
• Music style: patter-vs-chorus collage over march-like ostinato

Questions and Answers

Who produced “Rainbow Tour” on the Broadway cast album?

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice.

When was “Rainbow Tour” released by the Broadway cast?

1979, on the Original Cast Recording.

Who wrote the song?

Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Tim Rice.

Was “Rainbow Tour” part of the 1976 concept album?

Yes. It appears on Side Three of the original concept recording.

Does the 1996 film include “Rainbow Tour”?

Yes. The soundtrack credits Antonio Banderas, Jonathan Pryce, Madonna and others on the track.

Awards and Chart Positions

• Tony Awards: The 1979 Broadway production won Best Musical, Best Original Score, Best Book, Best Actress in a Musical (Patti LuPone), Best Featured Actor (Mandy Patinkin), Best Direction (Harold Prince) and Best Lighting Design (David Hersey) at the 1980 Tonys.
• Grammy: The American premiere/Broadway cast album won the 1981 Grammy for Best Cast Show Album (now Best Musical Theater Album).
• Film soundtrack charts: The 1996 Evita film soundtrack, which includes “Rainbow Tour,” peaked at no. 2 on the US Billboard 200 and topped several national charts.

How to Sing Rainbow Tour

This is an ensemble briefing, not a power ballad. Think clarity and pace.

• Voice types: Che sits in a tenor range; Perón is baritone; Eva’s interjections sit in a bright mezzo mix. Cast accordingly.
• Diction first: Che’s lines are journalistic - keep consonants crisp so the punchlines land.
• Breath planning: Che’s patter benefits from staggered breaths at phrase commas; Eva’s bursts need one-beat pickups that reset support.
• Blend and bite: Supporters’ refrains should be warm but not woolly. Aim for tight vowels so the “qualified yes” cadence stays rhythmic.
• Tempo feel: Keep a brisk march feel. If the groove sags, the satire does too.

Additional Info

Covers and adaptations: The song appears on the 1976 concept album, the 1979 Broadway album, the 2006 London revival recording, and the 1996 film soundtrack. Brazilian productions have performed it as “Tour do Arco-Íris,” proving the tour’s metaphor travels easily across languages.

On Rome: Eva’s Vatican audience yielded a rosary and polite words rather than a decoration - a small detail the lyric needles for comic sting.