“My Once Upon a Time” by Dove Cameron

Dove Cameron’s “My Once Upon a Time” is both specifically based on the life of the singer as well as having a general applicability.

On it, Cameron is portraying the role of Mal, a character from the television musical “Descendants 3”.  And she relays this song at a specific juncture in the timeline of the story of this character. For instance, in the first verse when she sings that her “friends have turned to stone”, this is not necessarily a symbolic statement. Rather on “Descendants 3” itself her companions were literally turned to stone, which led to her singing this song.

Moreover you may notice in the pre-chorus that she references her “mother’s dark desire” and “father’s hair on fire”. The fictional character Mal is actually a mythical figure and daughter of the well-know, extremely evil Disney villain Maleficent. Moreover her father happens to be Hades, lord and total controller of the underworld. So that describes these graphic depictions of her parents. And note that both Maleficent and Hades have their own individual mythos. But one of the ideas that Mal is asserting via this track is that she wants to establish her own distinct “once upon a time”.

Thus via the song’s lyrics, we can see that she is not like them. She realizes that one day, just like her parents, her story or – “once upon a time” – will be written. But she wants her fairytale to read as one based on a woman who “fought a dragon”, “faced herself”, “spoke the truth” and in general strove for the greatness which she knew lied within. Indeed when she refers to ‘fighting a dragon’ it reads more like a symbolic statement, as she states that “once upon a time that beast was me”. In other words, the singer, from the onset of the song, acknowledges the external challenges she is facing. But throughout the track you can clearly see that an internal struggle to realize her positive potential is also a prominent aspiration of her life.

Conclusion

But outside of a few direct references to “Descendants 3”, the lyrics of this song are not terribly-specific. That is to say that they have a general applicability just like most other pop songs. And the idea they are putting forth is basically one of a young woman who has decided to be proactive in leaving her mark on the world. And when all is said and done, she wants her story to read as one in which she did her absolute best to achieve this goal. And likewise along these same lines, the audience empathizing with her strong stance can also derive encouragement from it to strive harder to “step into” their own “greatness”.

Release of “My Once Upon a Time”

This song made its premiere on 2 August 2019 (which was the date of the original airing of “Descendants 3”).

It is also featured on the “Descendants 3 (Original TV Movie Soundtrack)”. This project was issued by Walt Disney Records on 2 August 2019. Sarah Jeffery’s “Queen of Mean” also appears on this project.

Creators of this song

“My Once Upon a Time” was composed (both lyrics and music) by the following writers:

• David Goldsmith
• John Kavanaugh

Music producer Marco Marinangeli served as the sole producer of this track.