"Peace" is a song written by composers and lyricists Rose Williams and Tilly Young for Universal Pictures's animated musical romantic film Charlotte (2025). It was recorded solely by voice actor Kamryn Saunders as the titular character. Lyrically, "Peace" is about Charlotte wishing for world peace and for everyone to come together and unite, regardless of their negative views, in the midst of an extreme division between social groups.
"Peace" was one of the songs added, shortly after a story reel resulted in the musical numbers being reworked to fit the story better; the early version of "Peace" was originally titled "When Will the World Listen to Me." The song referred to the social and political divisions in countries, as well as the ongoing wars at that time of the production on the film. It is referred to as Charlotte's second and most important "I want" song.
Synopsis
The musical number "Peace" comes only five minutes after the previous song "On the Upside," in which Charlotte is calmed down by Aidan following an incident on the streets. Charlotte leaves after hugging him and wishing him a good night to go to a hotel they had rented. On her late-night walk through the forest and streets, Charlotte noticed everyone's negative views and wished that everyone would come together to unite, regardless of race or political beliefs. While singing, Charlotte expressed her hope for the future, despite the division, before breaking down in tears about her parents' cult and that she want them to understood her better than anyone else.
Background
"Peace" was written by composers and lyricists Rose Williams and Tilly Young. After reading the film's outline, which included a scene of Charlotte wishing for world peace, Williams and Young began to develop the song as a "emotional pleas" from Charlotte and highlighting the divisions, both in the film and outside in the real world. Charlotte researched the topic of world peace and its meaning to create the character's emotions of wanting "everything to return to the way it was before". The writing process was described as "complex" because various changes were made to the lyrics to make the song well-structured while not "messing up the core" of the song's themes and meaning. Early on, Williams and Young wrote "When Will the World Listen to Me", similar to the final version, with Charlotte "wishing that everyone would listen to her pleas to end the divisions"; Williams added that with the word "everyone," Charlotte was "thinking of her parents, Aidan, and all of the people that treated her in the beginning".
After reviewing the story reel in March 2023, the production team felt that the song was not as perfect as they had hoped. They suggested a darker and more emotional tone, which confused Williams and Young. They decided to create a new song in its place. To integrate the song's themes and message without making the new version too similar, the duo focused on more on division than world peace, but eventually decided that the two topics needed to be "in the central core". The duo believed that the song needed to be "more direct" with what Charlotte was expressing about the division, and that the new version should explore how the division affected her mentally. However, after multiple drafts, Williams and Young determined that the song's objective was to "make Charlotte feel hopeless while still trying to be positive and wishing that everyone would unite with each other, no matter what their views are: both positive and negative". They kept elements from the original version, such as the "everyone" phrase, which was altered to read "for all of us: the people, the animals, and everyone on this very planet" as its meaning. Overall, the "Peace" sequence was storyboarded by Williams, Young, writer Lilah Greer and director Sophia Nicholson. The score was composed by Lauryn Flowers and Aniya Carey.
Composition
"Peace" is a Broadway-inspired solo song in which Charlotte wishes for world peace and for everyone to come together and unite, regardless of their opposing viewpoints, in the midst of a severe social divide. The song was two minutes and thirty-one seconds long, making it the film's second shortest song after the reprise of "Who I am Meant to Be", "This is Where We Truly Belong" and "Is This Where I Truly Belong." According to a film critic, the song has "simultaneous elements and instrumental devices" from "Who I am Meant to Be" and "On the Upside," including the piano at the beginning and guitar for the first half of the song, describing it as a "sort-of-ballad musical number." In the first lines, Charlotte asks, "Hey/What happened to the world that I once loved/Where did the love go?/Where did the empathy go?/Why live in a world divided into twos?".
Reception
"Peace" received generally positive reviews.