One-Winged Angel

About

One-Winged Angel is a musical theme from the game Final Fantasy VII ^[2] and the background theme music for the game's final battle against Sephiroth.^[1] The popularity of the character, combined with the popularity of the game itself, has made the theme one of the most notable songs in gaming history and it has been widely parodied online.

Origin

Final Fantasy VII was first released in 1997 for the Sony PlayStation. During the last part of the game, the player battles the main antagonist Sephiroth. During this battle, Sephiroth takes on multiple forms as the battle progresses, the last form being called Safer Sephiroth. It is during this battle that "One-Winged Angel" plays as the background music. The theme was composed by Nobuo Uematsu and was the first theme in the series to feature vocal lyrics.

Spread

The song has long been the subject of parodies and remixes on YouTube. Popular examples include a Gabe the Dog remix posted by Composite on November 25th, 2016 that gained over 533,000 views in nearly seven years (shown below, left) and an Ayaya parody posted July 3rd, 2015 by koneella that gained over 105,000 views in eight years (shown below, right).

Canonical Reappearance

The theme has reappeared with Sephiroth across the main Final Fantasy series and other series the character has appeared in. Within the main series, "One-Winged Angel" is in back in Dissidia Final Fantasy, Theatrhythm Final Fantasy, and Crisis Core. The theme also appears when Sephiroth appears in the Kingdom Hearts series (shown left) and in the 2005 animated film _Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (shown right), featuring an orchestral performance being accompanied by The Black Mages, an instrumental rock band formed by Nobuo Uematsu himself.

One-Winged Kong

One-Winged Kong is a prominent mashup of the "DK Rap" from Donkey Kong 64 and "One-Winged Angel." Since a mashup of the two songs was posted to YouTube in 2020, several memers have enhanced and remixed it, while others have used it in gameplay montages for various video games.

On April 17th, 2020, YouTuber Salty Cabbage^[1] posted "One-Winged Kong," a remix of the "DK Rap" and "One-Winged Angel" songs, gaining over 1.2 million views in two and a half years (shown below).

Search Interest

External References