"The Gods Love Nubia" is the thirteenth song from the concept album Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida. The song is sung by Kelly Price.
The song was the finale on the first act. Hearing that her father, Amonasro, had been captured by the Egyptian forces, Princess Aida tried to rally her peoples' spirits, despite the fact that their king was now enslaved too. She insisted that fate had been cruel to them, but it can only get better as long as they keep their hope alive and not let life bury them in sorrows. She assured her people that no matter what happens to their land, that Nubia will always live on, as each one of them was Nubia. She led them all in a hymn of their homeland, assuring her fellow slaves that the Gods had not forgotten them.
Lyrics[]
The tears of Nubia
Take me in my dreams recurring
Cheerful as a childhood dance
Into one more taste of freedom
One more longing backward glance
In the sway of somber music
I shall never understand
Let me slip into the sweeter
Chorus of that other land
The gods love Nubia
The beautiful, the golden
The radiant, the fertile
The gentle and the blessed
The pain of Nubia
Is only for the moment
The spirit always burning
Though the flesh is torn apart
In the sway of somber music
I shall never understand
Let me slip into the sweeter
Chorus of that other land
The gods love Nubia
The beautiful, the golden
The radiant, the fertile
The gentle and the blessed
The pain of Nubia
Is only for the moment
The desolate and the suffering
The plundered, the oppressed
The gods love Nubia
The glorious creation
The songs roll sweetly
Across the harvest plain
The tears of Nubia
A passing aberration
They wash into the river
And are never cried again
The gods love Nubia
We have to keep believing
The scattered and divided
We are still its heart
The fall of Nubia
Ephemeral and fleeting
The spirit always burning
Though the flesh is torn apart
The spirit always burning
Though the flesh is torn apart
The spirit always burning
Though the flesh is torn apart
The spirit always burning
Though the flesh is torn apart
Aida: Take me in my dreams recurring
Cheerful as a childhood dance
Into one more taste of freedom
One more longing backward glance
In the sway of somber music
I shall never, never understand
Let me slip into the sweeter
Chorus of that other land
The gods love Nubia, the beautiful, the golden
The radiant, the fertile, the gentle and the blessed
The pain of Nubia is only for the moment
the desolate the suffering
the plundered, the oppressed
Nehebka: The gods love Nubia, their glorious creation
Its songs roll sweetly across the harvest plain
Nehebka & Aida: The tears of Nubia, a passing aberration
They wash into the river and are never cried again
Nehebka, Aida, Mereb, and Nubian Woman:
The gods love Nubia, we have to keep believing
The scattered and divided, we are still it's heart
Aida: The fall of Nubia, ephemeral and fleeting
The spirit always burning though the flesh is torn apart.
All: The fall of Nubia
Ephemeral and fleeting
The spirit always burning
Though the flesh is torn apart
Take me in my dreams recurring
Cheerful as a childhood dance
Into one more taste of freedom
One more longing backward glance
The gods love Nubia, the beautiful, the golden
The radiant, the fertile, the gentle and the blessed
The pain of Nubia is only for the moment
the desolate the suffering
the plundered, the oppressed
The gods love Nubia
we have to keep believing
Though scattered and divided we are still it's heart
The fall of Nubia ephemeral and fleeting the spirit always
Burning though the flesh is torn apart
The spirit always burning though the flesh is torn apart
Aida: Apart
All: Take me in my dreams recurring
One more longing backward glance