Carly Mallenbaum

USA TODAY

Oscar-nominated song Let It Go from Disney's Frozen is a showstopper. In more ways than one.

Songwriter Kristen Anderson-Lopez says when the song was originally written, it was meant for a villain.

"Elsa (voiced by Idina Menzel) was gonna come down the hill with her army of marshmallow snow people and take over the town, but we wrote Let It Go" and we felt differently about her character who had suppressed her magical powers for so long, she said. "And then they rewrote the whole movie around" the new character's identity.

In the final version of the film, Elsa is no longer a villain with a snowman army but a protagonist who sings Let It Go while constructing her own ice castle in a scene that's been viewed well over 100 million times.

Anderson-Lopez said 17 of her songs had to be cut from the film, so it was nice to have Let It Go stay in and make such an impact on film fans of all ages.

"We went to a Frozen singalong, and a saw a whole row of teenage boys sing it," she said.