Congratulations Lyrics
Congratulations
[Alexander:]Angelica
[Angelica:]
Alexander
Congratulations
You have invented a new kind of stupid
A 'damage you can never undo' kind of stupid
An 'open all the cages in the zoo' kind of stupid
'Truly, you didn't think this through?' kind of stupid
Let's review
You took a rumor a few maybe two people knew and refuted it by sharing an affair of which no one has accused you
I begged you to take a break, you refused to
So scared of what your enemies might do to you
You're the only enemy you ever seem to lose to
You know why Jefferson can do what he wants?
He doesn't dignify school-yard taunts with a response!
So yeah, congratulations!
[Alexander:]
Angelica
[Angelica:]
You've redefined your legacy
Congratulations
[Alexander:]
It was an act of political sacrifice!
[Angelica:]
Sacrifice?
I languished in a loveless marriage in London
I lived only to read your letters
I look at you and think 'God, what have we done with our lives and what did it get us?'
That doesn't wipe the tears or the years away
But I'm back in the city and I'm here to stay
I know what I'm here to do
[Alexander:]
Angelica
[Angelica:]
I'm not here for you
I know my sister like I know my own mind
You will never find anyone as trusting or as kind
And a million years ago she said to me 'this one's mine'
So I stood by
Do you know why?
I love my sister more than anything in this life
I will choose her happiness over mine every time
Eliza
[Alexander:]
Eliza
[Angelica:]
Is the best thing in our lives
So never lose sight of the fact that you have been blessed with the best wife
Congratulations
For the rest of your life
Every sacrifice you make is for my sister
Give her the best life
Congratulations
Song Overview
Personal Review
Congratulations is Angelica on full throttle—ninety-two bars of blistering syllables that never made the Broadway cut. I first caught it at the final #Ham4Ham in 2016, when Renée tore through the rap outside the Richard Rodgers, Lin FaceTiming from Austria; the street went silent, then roared.
Key takeaway? Angelica weaponises love, loyalty, and intellect to shred Hamilton’s self-styled martyrdom. The song later resurfaced on The Hamilton Mixtape when rapper Dessa’s cover notched 20 million streams.
Song Meaning and Annotations
Set moments after the Reynolds Pamphlet drops, the piece stages Angelica’s furious home-coming. She congratulates Hamilton—sarcasm dripping—on inventing “a new kind of stupid.” The verse structure mimics a legal brief: four escalating metaphors, then a bullet-point dismantling of his logic (“rumor a few, maybe two, people knew … ”).
Workshop vs. Broadway. Miranda folded choicest lines into “The Reynolds Pamphlet,” realising the audience craved Eliza’s reaction next.
Musical fabric. Riding a 96 BPM boom-bap in B-minor, pizzicato strings flick at Angelica’s consonants: paper cuts under every rhyme.
“You’re the only enemy you ever seem to lose to.” —Angelica
Legacy & gender politics. Her tirade highlights the cost of male ego on female lives—she “languished in a loveless marriage” abroad while Hamilton torched his at home.
Verse Highlights
Metaphor Stack
Angelica piles five metaphors in perfect iambic tetrameter, each landing like a gavel.
Political Contrast
“Jefferson doesn’t dignify school-yard taunts with a response!”—a jab knowing Jefferson just danced off with Hamilton’s career.
Sister’s Creed
The tempo drops as she vows, “I love my sister more than anything in this life,” strings rising a minor third.
Detailed Annotations
Congratulations is the fiery workshop number that once flared between The Reynolds Pamphlet and Burn. Here, Angelica Schuyler storms back from London to chastise Alexander Hamilton for detonating his own reputation. The song, later trimmed to a few lines inside The Reynolds Pamphlet, offers a crystalline view of Angelica’s wit, her loyalty to Eliza, and Hamilton’s obsession with legacy.
Overview
The curtain rises on a hushed summons—
Alexander…—answered by Angelica’s ice-edged salute:
Congratulations.What follows is a virtuoso dressing-down built on escalating metaphors: Hamilton has invented
a “damage you can never undo” kind of stupid… an “open all the cages in the zoo” kind of stupid.She outlines his blunder: he magnified a quiet rumor into a national scandal by publishing the Reynolds Pamphlet—
You took a rumor a few, maybe two, people knew and refuted it by sharing an affair of which no one has accused you.
Musical Techniques
- Angelica’s scale. The ascending half of her “Satisfied” pentatonic motif opens the song, addressing Hamilton alone; the descending half surfaces later when she pivots to Eliza. The split theme mirrors her divided allegiance.
- Sarcastic percussion. Angelica spits Congratulations on clipped sixteenth-notes, each syllable a drum hit that turns the word into a slap.
- Quote-weaving. Key lines later grafted into the Broadway score—
I know my sister like I know my own mind…
—first appear here, establishing musical continuity even after the cut.
Character Dynamics
Angelica Schuyler. She arrives as judge, jury, and protective elder sister. Where Eliza will burn silently, Angelica delivers a public indictment. Her grievances run deeper than moral outrage; she recalls her own compromise—
I languished in a loveless marriage in London. I lived only to read your letters.The subtext: she sacrificed personal happiness so Eliza could wed Hamilton, and he has squandered that gift.
Alexander Hamilton. He interjects her name three times—
Angelica… Angelica… Angelica…—each quieter than the last, like a boxer on the ropes. His lone defense—
It was an act of political sacrifice!—rings hollow. Angelica skewers the excuse with one incredulous word:
Sacrifice?
Thematic Elements
- Legacy versus loyalty. Angelica hammers Hamilton’s fixation on posterity:
You’ve redefined your legacy—congratulations.
His choice to protect reputation at Eliza’s expense reveals that his greatest enemy is himself—You’re the only enemy you ever seem to lose to.
- Sisterly devotion. The emotional core lands in her vow:
I love my sister more than anything in this life. I will choose her happiness over mine every time.
She frames Eliza as the best thing in our lives, ordering Hamilton never to forget he is blessed with the best wife. - Women’s sacrifice. Angelica’s scripted “loveless marriage” departs from historical record but underscores an era when daughters married for alliance, not affection. Her bitterness spotlights costs women bore to uphold family honor.
Historical References
The real Angelica eloped for love in 1777 and lived contentedly with John Barker Church in Europe. Miranda reshapes her story to heighten drama—aligning her loneliness with Hamilton’s hunger and Eliza’s heartbreak. Hamilton’s pamphlet did indeed run ninety-plus pages and was, as contemporaries sneered, the first great public sex scandal in U.S. politics.
The lyric
He doesn’t dignify school-yard taunts with a response!contrasts Thomas Jefferson’s silent strategy with Hamilton’s compulsion to rebut every slight—a habit Miranda later likened to “retweeting haters.”
Closing Image
Angelica ends where she began, but the sarcasm curdles into a directive:
Congratulations—for the rest of your life, every sacrifice you make is for my sister. Give her the best life. Congratulations.The line foreshadows Hamilton’s final years—moving uptown, mourning Philip, seeking Eliza’s forgiveness—and echoes in his last letter, where he calls her “best of wives and best of women.” In two scathing minutes, Congratulations distills the musical’s central conflicts: ego versus empathy, legacy versus love, and the righteous fury of a sister determined to protect her own.
Song Credits
- Featured Vocals: Renée Elise Goldsberry (Angelica), Lin-Manuel Miranda (Alexander)
- Producer & Composer/Lyricist: Lin-Manuel Miranda
- Workshop Premiere: February 17 2015
- Genre: Scathing Rap Waltz / Show Tune
- Length: 2 min 18 sec
- Key: B-minor
- Mood: Furious reckoning
- Instruments: clav, drum pad, pizzicato strings, trombone hits
Songs Exploring Themes of Betrayal & Sisterhood
“Burn” – Original Broadway Cast
Eliza answers the scandal inwardly; where Angelica lashes out, Eliza withdraws, showing two faces of betrayal.
“Satisfied” – Act I
Angelica’s toast foreshadows her here: self-sacrifice turning to righteous fire.
“Congratulations” – Dessa Cover
Industrial drums and half-time hook prove the verse stands as pure hip-hop.
Questions and Answers
- Why was the song cut?
- Miranda felt audiences needed Eliza’s response immediately, so he merged key lines into “The Reynolds Pamphlet.”
- Is there an official recording?
- No studio track exists; the only high-quality performance is the 2016 #Ham4Ham street concert.
- How successful is the Mixtape cover?
- Dessa’s version helped The Hamilton Mixtape debut at #1 and has passed 20 million Spotify streams.
- Were any lyrics recycled?
- Yes—Angelica’s “school-yard taunts” and sister-devotion bars now live in “The Reynolds Pamphlet.”
- Has it been staged since?
- Only in concerts; no official production has restored it to the running order.
Awards & Milestones
| Milestone | Year | Note |
|---|---|---|
| #Ham4Ham orchestral debut | 2016 | YouTube views ? 1.8 M |
| Dessa cover streams | 2025 | Spotify plays > 20 M |
| The Hamilton Mixtape Billboard 200 peak | 2016 | #1 debut |
How to Rap It?
Angelica spans G3–E5, averaging 5.2 words / sec. Emphasise plosives and breathe on the commas Miranda wrote as air-pockets.
Fan and Media Reactions
“Angelica roasts him so cleanly you can smell the smoke.” – YouTube comment
“Cut from the show? Criminal. It’s the verbal knockout punch of Act II.” – r/hamiltonmusical
“Dessa turned Angelica’s rage into a stadium-ready banger.” – Doomtree press bio
“Miranda calls it his ‘favorite orphan’—we call it the lost act-break.” – Ham4Con panel recap
“I whisper ‘new kind of stupid’ every time a politician immolates on Twitter.” – TikTok stitch