Figure skaters now play diverse songs on ice, See top skaters' choice of music

Figure skating is not only about jumps and spinning. Music is an indispensable component of the sport, with the potential to enhance performance and earn competitors a higher score.

“In my mind, I can see musical notes on ice,” said Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan, a two-time Olympic champion, in a 2015 interview. “While doing the choreography, I skate on the notes.”

While the judging panel carefully grades the technical elements executed by each skater, it also evaluates music interpretation—it is one of the five components skaters are scored on. Skaters usually perform the same programs (short program, free skating, and exhibition) each season, meaning they need to select at least two songs that they will use over the entire season. This makes the right choice of music crucial.

There are a few figure skating musical standards—chief among them Puccini’s “Turandot” and Ravel’s “Boléro.” Indeed, classical music is a regular go-to for figure skaters.

However, since the 2014–15 season, when singles and pairs skaters have been permitted to compete to music with lyrics, the music heard on the rink has become much more diverse. The 2022 Beijing Olympic Winter Games are a case in point.

The men’s figure skating programs at this year’s Olympics were particularly musically eclectic. Adam Siao Him Fa of France skated to a Daft Punk mash-up, while Donovan Carrillo of Mexico chose “Black Magic Woman” by the Latin rock band Santana. Hanyu, who ended up fourth place, skated to the classical “Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso” by Camille Saint-Saëns for his short program. The piece was edited and played by a professional pianist exclusively for his performance.

Mais ouiii, notre espoir Adam Siao Him Fa (21 ans) qui met le feu sur un medley de Daft Punk et claque un personal best aux JO en libre (163.41 pts), et il prend la 2e place provisoire (les meilleurs sont à venir mais il peut gagner qq places après sa 14e au court) pic.twitter.com/qUgOWUi22d

— Philippe Berry (@ptiberry) February 10, 2022

Three medalists at the Beijing Olympics—Nathan Chen of the US, and Yuma Kagiyama and Shoma Uno of Japan—also skated to music from very different genres. In the free skating program, Chen performed energetically to an Elton John medley, while Kagiyama skated perfectly to the instrumental score from Gladiator. Uno chose the classic “Boléro” and ended up winning two Olympic medals in a row.

Yuma Kagiyama, Nathan Chen, Shoma Uno (from left)/ Aude Mugnier, CC BY-SA 4.0,David W. Carmichael - davecskatingphoto.com., CC BY-SA 3.0, Sandro Halank, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Wanting to understand more about these musical choices, and because there are few figure-skating musical databases available online, I scraped together a program table for each skater from Wikipedia and made individual music lists for their short programs and free skating. If a song had its own Wikipedia page, I extracted the primary musical genre of the song from there. If it did not, I guessed a song’s genre based on the musician or composer.

I roughly separated the musical genres into three categories: classical, experimental, and popular. For analytical purposes, I combined some musical subgenres under the one heading. For example, I categorized electropop and trance music under electronic music.

Note: I excluded exhibition programs from the analysis. Exhibition programs are not competition; rather, they showcase skaters’ skills with no pressure or scores awarded. The songs played at exhibition galas tend to be popular songs or other ‘lift-me-up’ types of music. For example, Chen selected Avicii’s “The Nights” for this season’s exhibition.

Here is the musical genre breakdown for Chen, Kagiyama, and Uno over the past ten seasons.

It seems that Chen used to choose classical music for his program but gradually shifted toward pop/rock songs. This season, he chose some classical music (Mozart’s “Piano Concerto No. 23” and “Lacrimosa”), but at the Beijing Olympics he only selected a chanson , “La Bohème,” for his short program, and a medley of Elton John’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” “Rocket Man,” and “Bennie and the Jets” for free skating. All the songs that won him his first Olympics gold medal were songs with lyrics .

Kagiyama, a rising star, seems to largely avoid classical music. Instead, he loves film scores, like the instrumental soundtracks from Avatar and The Lord of the Rings (2020–21 season). One of the two classical pieces he skated to was “The Firebird” by Igor Stravinsky, a ballet work. Kagiyama’s father, Masakazu, a former figure skater and two-time Olympian, also performed to the piece.

In contrast, Uno’s choice of music definitely falls into the classical category, but he also likes to explore new realms. In Beijing, for his short program, he skated to “Oboe Concerto” by the Venetian classical composer Alessandro Marcello, and used “Boléro” for his free skating program. However, he also enjoys skating to electronic music, which is not as popular among other skaters. During the 2020–21 and 2019–20 seasons, he skated to “Great Spirit” by Dutch DJ Armin van Buuren and Israeli psytrance duo Vini Vici, which apparently had never before been used by any figure skater.

"You hear this music every single day,” Chen said in the interview with USA TODAY. "So if something that is not fun to skate to, it becomes kind of a chore."

You're a Rocket Man, @nathanwchen! 🚀⛸️

Nathan Chen is now an Olympic champion after a stellar free program performance at #Beijing2022. 🥇⁠ pic.twitter.com/LcybUl3Qdl

— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) February 26, 2022

This story was done for Data Studio, a class in the Columbia Journalism School. You can view source code for this project in this GitHub repository.