Josh Ramsay Proves That Defying Gravity Is Harder Than It Looks

I thought my Wicked obsession had finally run its course. Then Josh Ramsay tried to conquer a new arrangement of “Defying Gravity” in one day.

I really thought I was done with Wicked for a while.

We got Wicked. We got Wicked: For Good. And we got pink, green, and enough “Defying Gravity” to make several generations look to the sky whenever someone starts singing about limits.

I enjoyed it. I participated. But honestly, I was ready to move on.

Then I found a video of Josh Ramsay from Marianas Trench being told he had one day to rebuild “Defying Gravity” from scratch. Apparently I am not done with Wicked at all.

“Do You Guys Hate Me?”

The video went up in September 2025 as part of Musora’s Covers On The Spot series, but I only recently stumbled across it. I’ve watched it enough times that I should be paying rent at Ramsay’s studio.

The premise is wonderfully cruel. Ramsay gets a song he doesn’t know ahead of time, then has one day to arrange it, produce it, play the instruments, record the vocals, and finish a cover. Musora chose “Defying Gravity.” His immediate response is essentially, “Do you guys hate me?”

Fair. This is not grabbing an acoustic guitar and seeing where the afternoon takes you.

Ramsay co-wrote and produced Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe,” which was nominated for Song of the Year at the Grammys, so he knows his way around a studio. That doesn’t make the assignment any easier. He describes his first reaction as “pure panic,” and the panic is what makes the video so good.

Taking It Apart

I love watching him break down an enormous theatrical moment into practical questions. What are the chords? When does the bass come in? Does this guitar tone work? Where does the arrangement need to build?

Then there’s the part of the song that depends on two characters, when he’s one guy alone in a studio. He realizes that a bit of dialogue that works perfectly in Wicked would sound absurd if he performed both sides himself. Imagine the whole dramatic buildup and then him asking himself, “You coming?”

No.

He Keeps the Original Key

This is where I’d like to question Josh Ramsay’s commitment to self-preservation. He could change the key. He knows he could change the key. But he leaves it alone.

He also teaches a Musora course called You Can Sing Higher Than You Think, so this is a very public pop quiz. Nothing like applying the lesson under extreme emotional distress.

The Clock Is the Real Villain

Then the time pressure starts eating him alive. He has guitars, bass, piano, synths, vocals, and drums to deal with, plus sounds he wants to improve and parts he wants to redo. Suddenly it’s 6:45, and the reaction is immediate: “Oh my God.”

This is my favorite version of creativity: running on pure instinct and relying solely on initial reactions. He reuses sounds because there’s no time to make new ones. He drags pieces around and asks whether something counts as cheating.

It doesn’t. At that point it counts as survival, and it makes him more impressive, because you see the difference between how you’d ideally make something and how you make it work with the time you actually have.

And Then He Sings It

None of this would matter if the finished song didn’t work. It works really, really well.

He doesn’t try to recreate Idina Menzel or Cynthia Erivo. His best choice is to make the arrangement his own. The drama and the emotional climb that “Defying Gravity” requires are all still there, but so is something unmistakably Josh Ramsay: the rock production, the layers, the way the whole thing keeps expanding until it finally lets loose.

Musora released his finished version as the single Defying Gravity (Musora Session) in October 2025.

Good Enough

Ramsay is happy with what he made, then immediately starts listing everything he’d change with more time: more vocal work, more guitar tones, more synth details…

There’s something reassuring about watching someone this good at his job still struggle with the idea that a thing can be finished without being perfect. Creative people will understand immediately.

So yes, I thought my Wicked phase was over. That was adorable of me. If you lose the rest of your afternoon to this video and hit replay, I’m not judging. I’ve already done the same.