A daughter’s relationship with her father is essential in shaping her future. Sadly, some girls grow up in households lacking their father’s presence. If the child in question is the daughter of a rock star, it’s almost inevitable that her father will often be far from home. For instance, Frank Zappa had four children named Moon, Dweezil, Ahmet, and Diva from his marriage to Adelaide Gail Sloatman, but he didn’t have time to show them fatherly support as he was relentlessly touring.
As it turns out, this was the case with Phil Collins’ daughter Lily Collins, the beautiful actress known for her role in ‘Emily In Paris.’ She is Phil’s daughter from his second marriage with Jill Tavelman. Unfortunately, Lily didn’t have a chance to spend her childhood with both of her parents, as they got divorced when she was just five years old. Following the painful divorce process, she expected her father to stand by her side, but Phil was nowhere to be seen.
At the time, Phil Collins was focused on his work with Genesis. He committed himself to tours and music to get through the divorce instead of supporting his daughter throughout these challenging times. As a result, they couldn’t form a solid father-daughter relationship. In fact, Lily found out her father was a rock star during a trip to Disneyland. According to Dailymail, somebody with a T-shirt with her father’s face on it approached them to take pictures, and she didn’t get what was happening at first.
Despite struggling with alcohol addiction and concentrating on his work with Genesis, Phil Collins was also working for Disney at that time. He was hired as a songwriter in 1995 after Disney rang his bell looking for a jungle beat for the 1999 Tarzan movie. Although we are accustomed to seeing the characters sing the songs, Phil Collins sang the vocals in the film.
Collins wrote five original songs for Tarzan. One of them was titled ‘You’ll Be In My Heart,’ which the musician had written for his ten-year-old daughter Lily. In Tarzan, the song is used in a heartwarming scene: Tarzan’s adoptive gorilla mother, Kala, sings the song to him to stop his crying, assuring him that she will protect him no matter what. Kala then tells Tarzan that everything will be okay.
‘You’ll Be In My Heart’ doesn’t appear in the movie in its entirety; it ends in the first verse. The full version appears on the soundtrack album, and it was played during the end credits. The original version was called ‘Lullaby,’ as Collins wrote it as a lullaby for Lily.
“We grew up watching Disney shows and movies together,” said Lily to People during an interview in 2016 while speaking about her relationship with her father. “So, that was his way of being able to do it for his kids. It was so special.”
Since its release, ‘You’ll Be In My Heart’ won everyone’s hearts and rapidly rose to success. Apparently, Collins wrote the song to remind Lily that he loves her unconditionally and will always protect her. So, from this point of view, one can assume that Kala represents Phil while Tarzan represents Lily. As of now, the two are on good terms, and they have left the heartbreaks in the past.
