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"O Children" is a song by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. In 1997, while Hermione Granger and Harry Potter were camping out together after Ron Weasley decided to abandon their hunt for Lord Voldemort's Horcruxes, this song came on the radio. The two friends proceeded to share a slow dance to lift their spirits.[1]

Behind the scenes[]

  • This dance event only happens in the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 film and does not happen in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book.
  • This song was featured on the Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds album Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus, released in 2004, making its appearance in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 an anachronism, since the dancing scene is set in 1997 according to the novel's canonical timeline. However, similar inconsistencies suggest that the film timeline might take place about 10 years after the novels, roughly contemporaneously with the films' releases.
  • As the band have been together since 1983, it is also possible that the song first appeared on an earlier album in the Harry Potter universe.
  • In an interview, Matt Biffa, the music supervisor for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, explained that he chose the song because he identified with its lyrics on a personal level, as he was separating from his wife at the time and worried how it would affect their two young sons: "There was something really uplifting about that 'O Children,' with lyrics like 'rejoice / lift up your voice,' and all that stuff. I was thinking of my kids. The lyrics are saying, 'Forgive us for what we've done.' It started out as a bit of fun, but then there's weeping. It was horribly on the nose for me. At the same time, it was giving me hope. It's not the same as writing a song for my children, but this is the closest I can get."[2]
  • According to Biffa, obtaining permission to use the song in the film was not difficult, and Nick Cave was happy that it was a lesser-known Bad Seeds song that had been selected.[2]

Appearances[]

Notes and references[]

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