Musical Supervillains: Ranking the Top 5

These Villains Stop the Show

Music is an expressive artform. Not as dry as writing or still as artwork, it constantly changes to let the listener experience emotion. Who hasn’t rocked out while returning from a bad day at work or listened to a mournful aria to cope with a break-up? Bombastic and revelatory music is perfect for villains.

Musical supervillains always steal the show. Some go for stylish villain songs while others voice their pain and grief. So which villainous virtuosos are the best of the worst? Let’s find out. Maestro, if you please?

#5 The Phantom of the Opera

Played By: Lon Chaney, Michael Crawford, Gerard Butler
Notable Songs: The Phantom of the Opera, The Music of the Night, Poor Fool/He Makes Me Laugh

Everyone thinks of this face when they hear the phrase musical supervillain. Through decades, he’s brought melodies and fright/ and now it starts once more, the music of the night…

The Paris Opera House was haunted. An enigmatic figure dubbed The Phantom of the Opera extorted the owners and staged dangerous accidents if defied. He fell in love with newcomer Christine Daae and secretly taught her to sing. Christine believed that he was an angel of music sent by her dead father.

Two new people bought the opera house and refused The Phantom’s demands. Even worse, Christine’s ex-lover was their new patron. The Phantom brought Christine to his subterranean lair to seduce her. She was terrified by his disfigured face and possessiveness, but he gaslighted her into seeing him as a sympathetic figure.

The Phantom has many weapons and hints of magic. He strangled victims with a noose and held off enemies with fiery blasts. He built several secret passages to sneak through the opera house while commiting sabotage, most famously causing a chandelier to fall on the audience. The Phantom is also a skilled musician who helped Christine become a star and penned a masterpiece called Don Juan Triumphant.

The Phantom of the Opera is the archetypal musical supervillain, but he can’t be ranked any higher. All the songs that enchant fans were first sung seventy-seven years after Gaston Leroux’s famous novel was published.

#4 Musical Supervillain: The Pied Piper

Played By: Andy Mientus
Notable Songs: The Life Equation

Between guitars, drums, vuvuzelas, and other instruments you could perform a dozen concerts without singing a note. This musical supervillain only needs one instrument. It’s time to pay the piper.

Hartley Rathaway was born deaf. His parents bought advanced cybernetics so he could hear, leading to his obsession with sound. By studying the technology used for his implants, Hartley discovered a sonic frequency that mind controlled people. He took inspiration from the German myth and became a modern day Pied Piper.

Pied Piper committed crimes for kicks, using his weaponized flutes to mind control victims, fire sonic blasts, and generate force fields. He fought the Flash several times before retiring from crime. Pied Piper then became a social justice advocate and ally of the Flash Family, despite retaining contact with The Rogues.

Pied Piper’s crowning moment came when he was trapped on the hellish world Apokolips. Alien torturer Desaad revealed that Hartley subconsciously tapped into The Anti-Life Equation to control victims. Desaad planned to use it to take over the universe, but Pied Piper’s killed him. With no way to escape, he played its countermelody, The Life Equation, and destroyed Apokolips.

The Life Equation is said to sound like the listener’s favorite song. The narration played Queen’s “The Show Must Go On”, but it could also have been anything from “The Beautiful Blue Danube” to “We Don’t Talk About Bruno.” What would it be for you? We await your song in the comments.

#3 Sweet

Played By: Hinton Battle
Notable Songs: What You Feel, Walk Through The Fire, What You Feel (Reprise)

Why do people in musicals burst into song when their emotions get heated? How does everyone suddenly have weeks of dance choreography memorized? We got the answer when this swingin’ sinner hit the scene.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s nightly patrol took a strange turn when she and the monsters spontaneously burst into song. The Scoobies learned that anyone who experienced heightened emotions would start well-choreographed musical numbers that reveal secrets. Even worse, dancing too much incinerated the fancy-footed fools.

They discovered that the culprit was Sweet, a dancing demon whose mere presence creates the musical effect. He kidnapped Buffy’s sister Dawn, claiming that she summoned him and must therefore become his queen.

Despite exposed secrets and frayed tempers, the Scoobies managed to work (and sing) together. Buffy’s friend Xander revealed that he had accidentally summoned Sweet although it’s implied that he was taking the heat for Dawn. Sweet declined to marry him and bowed out, content with the chaos he caused and being the only demon to unambiguously defeat Buffy.

#2 Musical Supervillain: The Music Meister

Played By: Neil Patrick Harris, Darren Criss, Larry Owens
Notable Songs: I’m the Music Meister, Drives Us Bats, The World is Mine!

Musical Supervillains are rarely global threats. They sing a few songs that endanger the heroes, then get beaten down in favor of more intimidating baddies. Neil Patrick Harris’ singing supervillain came within an inch of conquering the world.

The Music Meister was bullied as a child for singing in choir. He discovered a pitch that allowed him to mind control anyone who heard it and delighted in forcing his tormentors to dance.

Flash forward to adulthood, Music Meister controlled many heroes and villains to help him gain control of a satellite. His dance choreography and musical numbers allowed him to stay one step ahead of Batman and Black Canary, whom he had a crush on.

The Music Meister used a satellite broadcast to mind control everyone on Earth. Batman and Canary remained free thanks to earplugs and fought an all-singing, all-dancing army of minions. Black Canary’s sonic scream overloaded his microphone, freeing humanity and allowing Batman to knock out the Music Meister. This villain had a few encores on other shows, once as a mentor played by a Glee star and again as an R&B-themed couple’s counselor in Harley Quinn.

#1 Uta

Played By: Kaori Nazuka, Amanda Lee
Singing Voice: Ado
Notable Songs: New Genesis, Backlight, Tot Musica, The World’s Continuation

Musical Supervillains don’t need lengthy careers to earn their fame. Sometimes it’s better to have one shining concert than a lifetime of middling melodies. In 2022, this musical supervillain beat DJ Khaled and Beyoncé to top Apple’s Global 100.

Uta was adopted by a pirate named Shanks after he found her in a destroyed town. She became his crew’s official musician, aided by the power to pull her listeners’ souls into a dreamland called Uta World. Shanks helped find singing teachers for her on Elegia, the Island of Music. Uta’s future was bright until the night that Shanks murdered everyone on the island and abandoned her there.

Elegia’s king also survived the massacre and trained Uta to become the world’s greatest singer. She broadcast her music and used her songs to help others escape the horrific Grand Age of Pirates. Their stories wore on the still-traumatized Uta. She broke after discovering a video of her destroying Elegia while possessed by a demon named Tot Musica. Shanks had taken the blame to protect her.

Uta staged a concert and trapped 70% of humanity in Uta World. She planned to atone for her massacre by killing herself and caring for her fans souls in the dreamland. She was the only one who could free the captives, turning the concert into a hostage situation. Main characters Luffy and Shanks struggled to talk a dying Uta out of her plan. They fought the battle of their lives when Tot Musica possessed her again, but got through to her. Uta used the last of her strength for a swan song that freed everyone from Uta World.

Fun Fact: Funimation planned to make English covers of the soundtrack while dubbing the movie, but that fell through. Uta’s English voice actor, Amanda Lee, later performed those covers on her Youtube channel.

Which Musical Supervillain’s songs do you keep on repeat? Did we miss any great ones? Tell us in the comments.

Jared Bounacos

Jared Bounacos has written for Movie Rewind since 2016.