The Prince Of Egypt (Music From The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

The Artist

The Prince of Egypt soundtrack is a various artists compilation anchored by composer Hans Zimmer and songwriter Stephen Schwartz, the Broadway veteran behind Godspell, Pippin, and later Wicked. Zimmer was already a dominant force in film scoring by the late '90s, having won an Oscar for The Lion King, while Schwartz brought theatrical craft and lyrical weight to the project. The pop-end performers include Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Boyz II Men, K-Ci & JoJo, and Latin stars like Luis Miguel, assembled to extend the film's reach beyond the theater. The soundtrack sits at a specific moment in DreamWorks' young history, part of the studio's bid to challenge Disney's grip on animated musicals. It represents a peak collaboration between Zimmer's orchestral muscle and Schwartz's songwriting voice.

The Album

Released in 1998 alongside the DreamWorks animated film, the soundtrack was produced primarily by Hans Zimmer with contributions from a wide range of pop producers for the end-credit versions. The score tracks blend symphonic orchestration with Middle Eastern instrumentation, choral arrangements, and Hebrew-language passages. The album is split structurally: the first portion follows the film's narrative with song-and-score hybrids like "Deliver Us" and "The Plagues," while the back half delivers pop reinterpretations of the central songs. Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston's duet on "When You Believe" became the commercial centerpiece and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Thematically, the record wrestles with faith, bondage, chosen identity, and the cost of liberation.

Listen For

Choral language shifts. Listen to how "Deliver Us" moves between Hebrew and English choruses, grounding the Exodus story in a specific cultural voice before the pop vocals enter.

Zimmer's percussion palette. "The Plagues" leans on pounding, militaristic drums and layered male chorus, a signature Zimmer move that would echo through his later blockbuster scores.

The two "When You Believe" versions. Compare the in-film version sung by Michelle Pfeiffer and Sally Dworsky with the Carey and Houston pop single that closes the album's main song cycle.

Comic relief in the sequencing. "Playing With The Big Boys," voiced by the Egyptian priests, breaks the album's reverent tone with a sinister, almost vaudevillian swagger.

Reprises and bookends. Note how "Through Heavens Eyes" appears twice and how "River Lullaby" and "Humanity" extend the back half into quieter, pop-ballad territory.