The Lego Movie song 'Everything is Awesome' written during an 'ugly' divorce

Everything was far from awesome when Shawn Patterson wrote the track

Jess Denham
Friday 13 February 2015 11:02 EST
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'Everything is Awesome' from The Lego Movie is nominated for Best Original Song at the Oscars 2015
'Everything is Awesome' from The Lego Movie is nominated for Best Original Song at the Oscars 2015

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It’s nominated for an Oscar and insanely catchy, but “Everything is Awesome” was actually written during a decidedly rubbish time.

Songwriter Shawn Patterson penned the upbeat track for The Lego Movie while going through a “very ugly divorce”, a process he describes as “very therapeutic”.

“All of us, I’m assuming, have gone through horrible breakups at some point,” he told The Hollywood Reporter during an interview with the Best Original Song nominees.

“Part of what we do, I guess, with our tools and what we feel and have studied, is we create. I wrote pages and pages and pages of lyrics, trying different concepts.

Patterson admitted that there were “definitely elements of darkness” in his words including a big dose of “heavy f**king sarcasm”.

“I was like, ‘Hold on, don’t get too sarcastic in this part’,” he said. “That’s why I had pages and pages.”

Twin sister duo Tegan and Sara will perform “Everything is Awesome” with musical comedy trio The Lonely Island at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday 22 February.

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