Santa Evita Lyrics – Evita

Song Overview

Review and Highlights

“Santa Evita” sits at the heart of the score’s paradox. Andrew Lloyd Webber writes a devotional set-piece that glows like a hymn, then lets Che puncture the halo with one dry aside. You hear the machinery: soft treble voices, slow harmonic turns, and a processional pulse that swells into a workers’ litany in Spanish. Tim Rice’s lyric counts on contrast - innocence up front, ideology underneath - while the orchestrations thicken from children’s chorus to massed ensemble. It’s piety repurposed as branding, and the track does not hide the join.

Creation History

The number appears on Evita (Original Cast Recording) - the “Premiere American Recording” of the 1979 Broadway production - produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. It’s placed deep in Act 2, and on most releases lands as Track 17.

Song Meaning and Annotations

Plot

In the stage arc, Eva Perón’s charitable work has ripened into a cult of personality. Children and workers plead for intercession while Che - the show’s commentator - clocks the tactic out loud. The scene compresses public adoration, social programs, and image-making into one ceremonial tableau.

Song Meaning

Two layers run in counterpoint. On the surface, a benediction for the poor and the young. Beneath, a portrait of power learning how to look like mercy. The choral writing evokes church - parallel movement, homophonic blocks, and a steady, almost processional tempo - while Che’s line breaks the spell and reminds us who benefits when saints are minted in real time.

Annotations

“Get them while they’re young, Evita / Get them while they’re young.”

“Santa, Santa Evita / Madre de todos los niños / de los tiranizados / de los descamisados / de los trabajadores / de la Argentina.”

Production & instrumentation

Typical pit forces for the Broadway recording support the choral sheen with strings, brass, woodwinds, harp, keyboards and percussion - a liturgy-in-theatre sound that the album captures with close-miked clarity. The children’s chorus carries the opening color; the workers’ refrain broadens the spectrum with chest-voice weight and Spanish text.

Key Facts

• Artist: Original Broadway Cast of Evita (with Mandy Patinkin as Che)
• Composer: Andrew Lloyd Webber
• Lyricist: Tim Rice
• Producers (cast album): Andrew Lloyd Webber, Tim Rice
• Release Date: July 1979
• Album: Evita (Original Cast Recording) - “Premiere American Recording”
• Label: MCA Records (original US issue)
• Track #: 17
• Length: about 2:04
• Language: English with Spanish refrain
• Genre: through-sung musical theatre with hymn-like choral writing
• Instruments: children’s chorus, mixed chorus, strings, brass, woodwinds, keyboards, percussion
• Music style: devotional pastiche shaped for political theatre
• © Copyrights: UMG-owned catalog reissues credit Universal Music Classical for digital distribution

Questions and Answers

Who produced “Santa Evita” on the Original Broadway Cast album?

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice are credited producers for the early Evita recordings, including the 1979 Broadway cast album.

When was this recording released?

1979, with album release information commonly listed as July.

Who wrote the music and lyrics?

Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Tim Rice.

Where does “Santa Evita” fall in the show?

Act 2, after “And the Money Kept Rolling In (And Out),” cementing Eva’s canonization by the public. It appears as Track 17 on the OBC album.

Is this number on the pre-Broadway concept album too?

Yes - the 1976 concept set includes “Santa Evita” on side four.

Awards and Chart Positions

Evita swept the 1980 Tony Awards with wins including Best Musical, Best Original Score, Best Book of a Musical, Best Actress in a Musical (Patti LuPone), Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Mandy Patinkin), Best Direction of a Musical (Harold Prince) and Best Lighting Design.

The Evita Premiere American Recording won the Grammy Award for Best Cast Show Album at the 23rd Annual Grammy Awards in 1981.

Additional Info

Across later adaptations, the line Che fires during “Santa Evita” shifts tone. The stage album’s “Get them while they’re young” reads as a barbed warning; the 1996 film’s “Turn a blind eye” softens the indictment into neglect - a reminder that Evita is a living text, nudged by each era’s politics. The recording history is equally long-tailed: concept album in 1976, London stage album in 1978, Broadway cast in 1979, and a Grammy in 1981.