Who Is Robert Lopez? Wiki, Songwriter, Net Worth, ‘Coco’, ‘Frozen’ and Facts You To Know

Get to know more about Robert Lopez who is a professional songwriter. Below are intriguing facts about him you ought to know including his overall net worth.

Who is Robert Lopez?

‘Coco’ was a great movie that touched our hearts and also gave us a different view of the Mexican music culture. The setting itself and the vocals are evidence enough that you can’t get enough of Mexican music as it plays in your ears. The movie was directed by Lee Unkrich, and he was assisted by a professional team to make ‘Coco’ a success. There is one song, ‘Remember Me,that is sung twice in the movie. The emotional song was created by songwriter, Robert Lopez. Lopez is very talented in what he does and he works alongside his family, so it’s right to say that it’s a family affair. 42-year-old Lopez is known for his fantastic input as a songwriter in movies like ‘Winnie the Pooh,’ ‘Frozen,’ ‘Gigantic’, ‘The Book of Mormon,’ and ‘Coco’. Lopez has made a decent net worth from being such a success in the Hollywood film industry. He was born in Manhattan and he’s partly Filipino. His father, Frank Lopez has Filipino roots while his mother is Katherine Lowe is an American. His father worked as a director at NYU and Lopez spent much of his childhood in Greenwich Village. He also spentone year in Massachusetts while his father was employed at Clark University before they moved back to Greenwich Village once again. After they returned to Greenwich when he was six, Lopez started taking piano lessons at Greenwich House Music School. The apartment they were living in had a piano, and his mother asked Lopez whether or not he was interested in playing the piano. He of course said yes and at the age of seven, his parents bought him a piano. The songwriter wrote his first song when he was 11 and one year later, he also took to playing saxophone. He loved music so much that his parents signed him up for a course in musical composition. He graduated from Yale University in 1997.

Working on ‘Coco’s’ ‘Remember Me’

Robert Lopez and his wife Kristen Anderson-Lopez wrote the lyrics of the song ‘Remember Me’ while on board an F train on their way from Manhattan to Brooklyn. According to Mrs. Lopez, her husband wrote the melody that morning while still in his boxer shorts. Kristen Lopez went on to say that most of the lyrics are usually written on the subway and back in the day, there was no internet to distract her. Unlike many nominees, Lopez and his wife didn’t hear that they were nominated for an Oscar 2018 from friends but were actually sitting on their sofa in Brooklyn watching the nominations on TV alongside their daughter. Lopez expected to hear his name mentioned because ‘Coco’ was a huge hit, even winning a Golden Globe. It wasn’t a surprise for him, but that didn’t prevent him from throwing a party to celebrate the nomination. The Husband and wife team won an Oscar for ‘Frozen’ in 2014 and so this was just another notch in their belt. You would be surprised to learn that the song, ‘Remember Me’ wasn’t made for ‘Coco’ alone. Lopez and his wife sang the song together to mourn the death of a relative in the past year. In the movie, the song is played twice. The first time, it’s played in an uptempo kind of way and the second time, it played in a sad and lullaby kind of style to mark the gut-wrenching finale.

Facts to know

Pixar did the research for him

For the song to have the exact setting and flow in film, Lopez had to research ‘Dia de Los Muertos’ or “Day of the Dead,” but lucky for him, Pixar had done most of the research and all they had was to travel to Mexico and witness the festivals firsthand. While in Mexico Lopez dived into the Mexican music through consultants and learned the different types. Robert Lopez added that there is more to Mexican music and not just mariachi. They hooked up with a Camilo Lara, a Mexican artist that describes the music as the ‘Mexican Institute of Sound.’ Lara spent time with them in Brooklyn to educate them about the many branches of the music.

Coco is about a bridge

Robert Lopez stated that ‘Coco’ was about a bridge of one’s family is and who they were as a family. He added that it wasn’t limited to family alone but also the people around them. Lopez noted that the movie came at a time when the president was talking about building a wall between Mexico and the US and stated that it was a cultural moment. The music is a bridge between cultures, a language that everyone can understand and a beautiful marigold, according to Lopez. It wasn’t meant to be a wall of division.

He knows other songwriters with great skills

He was there before with ‘Frozen,’but this time it happened again. Lopez was nominated for an Oscar 2018, but the impact was different. He came to know more songwriters like him who are so good at the art. Lopez stated that this year was very competitive for him and he felt lucky to get nominated. He also said that he would be fine if he lost the award because he was lucky enough as it already was.

His net worth

According to the ‘Net Worth Post,’ Lopez has a net worth of $4 million. The songwriter has built much of his net worth from creating the lyrics to some songs in the films, ‘Coco’ ‘Frozen,’ ‘Winnie the Pooh’ ‘Gigantic,’ and ‘The Book of Mormon.’

Robert Lopez has one Oscar already, but it wouldn’t be a bad thing if he added another one this year. Hopefully, he will emerge the best songwriter and take the Oscar 2018 home.