Come What May (2001 song)

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"Come What May" is the love theme from Baz Luhrmann's 2001 film Moulin Rouge! It is sung by Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman in their respective roles as Christian and Satine. The song was composed by David Baerwald, and was released as a single in Australia where it became the 8th highest selling Australian single of 2001 [1].

"Come What May" was nominated for a 2002 Golden Globe for "Best Original Song - Motion Picture", where it lost to Sting's "Until" from Kate and Leopold. However it was ineligible for an Academy Award nomination for "Best Song" because it was originally written with another film in mind: Luhrmann's previous project William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet [2].

The song on the soundtrack and the film differ slightly: The lyrics: "Listen to my heart, can you hear it sing / Telling me to give you everything" can be heard on the soundtrack version. In the movie, they are replaced by a musical interlude the first time and the second time Satine instead sings: "come back to me and forgive everything."

When the forbidden relationship between Christian and Satine has been discovered, Christian pens and includes this song into the musical he is currently writing. Each time either of them sing this song, they can secretly declare their love for each other. This plays an important role later in the film; as lies and jealousy make it difficult for the truth to stand out.