Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

ORIGINAL SCORE

Wakanda Forever partially takes place in the underwater civilization of Tālocān, the city where Namor resides. Tālocān is rooted from Mesoamerican culture and Wakanda which are rooted in Nigerian culture. Göransson worked with several musical archaeologists to extensively research and recreate the Mayan music, as he felt that "the music was forcibly erased from the world, hundreds of years ago" and also went to Mexico City, to possibly recreate the sound of Mayan. In the research, several instruments from the graves were found, including flutes which had multiple components and fingerprints analyzing on how the instrument is being played. Göransson opined that "A lot of the instruments are from nature. So it's like seashells, there are turtle shells that you hit with sticks, there are different kinds of clay flutes that make the sounds of birds, and shakers that sound like snakes. It was so inspiring to hear all these sounds that I never heard before and definitely never heard in a movie before."

Namor's sound was a seashell, hence Göransson played his theme using the object since it was an integral part of the script. He felt that seashell is a difficult instrument to play, as "the tone can sometimes be similar to a French horn, but you don't have the same range in tonality and intervals. You're very limited in your notes and how you could access the notes fast because you're basically changing the notes by just putting your hand in the seashell. So it was kind of a combination of two different seashells because we had to experiment a little bit to get the exact melody that I wanted. And sometimes when you see Namor by himself, in a more intimate setting, it's just a solo seashell melody. But then, when you see him with all his people, ready to go to war, it's the seashell accompanied by eight French horns. So it gets an extra power to it." Another instrument that portrays the sound of Namor, was the "death whistle", a clay flute which sound like a "crazy, otherwordly animal scream", which represents Namor's action or strength, resulting in the abrasive sound. Several vocal sounds were used for the citizens of Tālocāns, which were described it as "low male, throat singing type vocals".

T'Challa's theme, written for the first film, was altered in the sequel, as he felt that "the theme is the same, but immersed with another character". Another new theme was written for Shuri to underscore the process of grief and anger, as "When you first hear the theme, it’s sung by Jorja Smith and throughout the story, that theme evolves to evoke the kind of leader that Shuri wants to be. It even takes on a completely different shape in the form of a bombastic synthesizer." Riri Williams/Ironheart also had a unique theme, which Göransson had stated "She’s from Chicago, so the culture of the city is part of her sound. I'm learning about this very progressive music city, including house and hip hop, so I’m just dipping my toe in her character."


SONGS

Göransson also produced most of the songs and served as the executive producer of the soundtrack in addition to composing the score, which he described as a "seamless process". While recording the score during daytime, with the Mayan instruments and sounds, he also recorded songs with contemporary artists and used the elements which he would record for the score, in the songs. All of this happened when Coogler was filming Wakanda Forever as he did not have the footage, but did have the script, so they could discuss with the artists about the script and explain about using the songs for the particular sequence, and added "every note, every word, every lyric, everything was written specifically for the movie". At the recording in Mexico, the song "Laayli’ kuxa’ano’one", performed by Mayan rappers Pat Boy, Yaalen K’uj, and All Mayan Winik, was first recorded which was set during the end credits.

Another session was held in Lagos, Nigeria where three songs were recorded: a cover version of "No Woman No Cry", performed by Tems, "Coming Back For You" performed by Fireboy DML, and "Anya Mmiri" performed by CKay featuring PinkPantheress. Göransson wrote the song, "Árboles Bajo El Mar", which was co-written by Vivir Quintana along with Mare Advertencia. It describes Namor's origin story, where his mother is forced into move into the ocean to escape the brutal assault of the Tālocān, Göransson said, "That song was so powerful that some of that vocal melody I used later on in the theme for the Tālocān siren song that they use to hypnotize people. I kind of got hypnotized myself when she [Quintana] started singing and pushing out air when she was breathing. It needed to be enticing and threatening, and we had that sung by a choir of Mexican singers." Another track, "Con La Brisa", was performed by Mexican singer Foudeqush, which was played when Namor took Shuri on a tour to Tālocān. T'Challa's theme was played in the beginning of the song, with the lyrics of the song punctuated over the drum motif.

On October 18, 2022, it was confirmed that singer Rihanna had recorded two original songs for the film's soundtrack: "Lift Me Up" and "Born Again". The former was officially announced on October 26, 2022, as her first solo single release since "Love on the Brain" (2016), and was released as a single, two days later, A music video, accompanying the single was released on Rihanna's official YouTube channel on the same day. Göransson produced and co-wrote the track, with Rihanna, Ryan Coogler (the film's director) and Tems. He said that the song acts as a tribute to the late Chadwick Boseman, who played T'Challa, the titular protagonist in Black Panther; Boseman died of cancer in August 2020. According to Clash, "Lift Me Up" is an "emotive" R&B ballad that "speaks from the heart". The song opened to mixed critical reception, but performed well commercially, with the song reaching number one in Switzerland, number two on the US Billboard Hot 100, number three in UK Official Singles Chart,[17] and featured in the Top 10 in 10 other countries. It also topped the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot R&B Songs charts.