Grizabella sings “Memory” before being chosen in Cats. The song is the musical’s emotional centerpiece: Grizabella, once a glamorous Jellicle, returns as an isolated and ageing outsider and pleads for acceptance through memories of her past.
Andrew Lloyd Webber composed the music, while Trevor Nunn wrote the lyrics from ideas and poems by T. S. Eliot. Eliot’s 1939 collection Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats provided the source material for the musical, but Grizabella herself was omitted from that original book because her story was considered too sad for children.
A common mix-up is that “Memory” is not performed only once. Grizabella sings a short prelude near the end of Act I and the complete version near the finale, with Jemima contributing brief melodic passages. Encouraged by the younger cats, Grizabella wins the tribe’s sympathy. Old Deuteronomy then selects her for the Jellicle choice, sending her toward the Heaviside Layer and a new life.