The Song That Launched More Than a Thousand Voyages

Like many people my age, Nirvana changed my life. But it wasn’t the only music I was discovering at that time. I had an eclectic taste in music, and my CD collection reflected it. Alongside grunge sat artists who seemed to create something entirely different. Enya. Clannad. Karl Jenkins. Ennio Morricone.

Their music felt cinematic, spiritual and strangely timeless. It transported me somewhere, even if I couldn’t explain where.

Decades later, I found myself standing on the pool deck of Windstar‘s Star Pride as the ship departed Reykjavík during an Iceland circumnavigation. Icy rain slashed across my face as the ship eased away from the dock, Vangelis’ Conquest of Paradise echoing across the deck.

I remember recognizing the music, but I never stopped to wonder why Windstar had chosen it. The voyage continued, and I didn’t think much more about it until now, when I began researching one of the company’s longest-running traditions.

How did a film score written for Ridley Scott’s 1992 film 1492: Conquest of Paradise become one of the defining traditions aboard some modern sailing cruise ships?

The Journey Begins

Curious about how Conquest of Paradise became part of the experience, I asked Windstar about their sail-away tradition.

“Windstar’s use of Conquest of Paradise as signature sail-away music is a long-standing tradition,” Windstar Chief Operating Officer Stijn Creupelandt told us.

Creupelandt said the company’s earliest formal documentation standardizing the experience dates to 2012. An internal recollection from a longtime team member, however, places the music aboard Wind Song as early as 1995.

While Windstar has not identified the captain or cruise director who first introduced it, he said the company has “a strong internal history” showing how the tradition evolved into what is now its Signature Sail Away.

What fascinated me wasn’t just when the tradition began.

It was also why it has endured.

Creupelandt said Windstar’s sail-away is meant to “dramatize the continuing adventure that is part of a Windstar voyage.” Over time, he said, Conquest of Paradise has become “the soundtrack to that feeling for many of our guests.”

“For Windstar, the song represents more than a departure cue,” he added. “It marks the emotional beginning of the journey — the moment guests feel the romance of sailing, the sense of tradition, and the anticipation of what lies ahead. As our brand has evolved, that sail-away moment has remained one of the signature experiences that guests connect with most strongly.”

I kept coming back to one phrase: the emotional beginning of the journey.

Years after hearing Conquest of Paradise across the deck of Star Pride, I finally understood why that moment had stayed with me. It wasn’t simply a song playing through the speakers.

It had become part of the memory.

What’s That Lyric?

By the time he composed Conquest of Paradise, Greek composer Vangelis was already one of the world’s most celebrated musicians.

He had won an Academy Award for Chariots of Fire. His electronic score for Blade Runner would later become one of cinema’s most unique soundtracks.

Here’s something I didn’t realize until I started researching this story.

Have you ever listened closely to Conquest of Paradise?

I mean, really listened?

Many people assume the choir is singing in Latin. I certainly did. It isn’t. Instead, the choir sings in an invented, pseudo-Latin vocal style that sounds ancient and familiar without belonging to any one language.

Maybe that’s part of the composition’s appeal.

Without understanding a single word, listeners still understand exactly how it feels.

Ironically, while 1492: Conquest of Paradise received mixed reviews, its soundtrack took on a life of its own. More than 30 years later, many people recognize the music without ever having seen the film.

A familiar sound

As I listened to Conquest of Paradise again, I realized why it had always felt so familiar.

It belonged to the same musical world as the CDs I kept on repeat during the early 1990s.

Karl Jenkins’ Adiemus used voices as instruments rather than language. Enya layered harmonies into dreamlike landscapes. Clannad introduced audiences around the world to Irish-language vocals. Anyone remember the Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos?

And then, there was Ennio Morricone’s score for The Mission, which blended sacred choir with sweeping orchestration.

Whether it was Celtic harmonies, Gregorian chant, invented languages or sweeping orchestral scores, they all invited us to slow down and look within and beyond ourselves. You didn’t need to understand the words—if there were words at all. The music invited you to feel something rather than explain it.

Perhaps that’s why Conquest of Paradise found such a natural home aboard sailing ships. It’s a song that embodied rediscovery, reflection and reconciliation.

Windstar isn’t alone in embracing the composition. Star Clippers also uses the song as part of its sail-away tradition.

Whether the tradition spread organically through the sailing-cruise community or developed independently aboard different ships may never be fully known.

But for countless travelers, it belongs not to the movies, but to that moment when the lines are cast off, the shoreline begins to fade, and the voyage begins.

Ultimately, some songs remind us where we’ve been.

Some remind us that it’s time to go.