The Villain Song is an over-the-top gloat during a MusicalNumber. The villain cackles about their Evil Plan, philosophy of life, or why they do what they do (their leitmotive?). Said philosophy can take many forms, but is there to justify their actions. This song is usually delivered in a minor key, with dramatic evidence of the villain's evil nature, such as playful abuse of loyal minions, taunting of prisoners, or random destruction of incidental locations of the villain's secret lair, usually for the purpose of abusing minions or taunting prisoners.
The villain usually gets lots of Spectacle to go with their song — live performers will dance up a storm, while animated villains will get pyrotechnics all around them. If they don't get huge visuals, it better damn well be because the song itself steals the show, and trying to distract from that with a lot of flashy visuals is just asking for a chandelier to fall on someone. The quality of the song is often proportional to how nutty the villain is, too.
Villain songs are also a guide to antagonist statuses in a musical. If the musical has no villain song, the antagonists aren't very important to the plot, and nobody qualifies as the Big Bad. Not every song sung by a villain is a Villain Song, although having a song where they extoll their Evil Virtues will often give them equal billing with the hero. They don't even have to sing the song themselves; their minions/allies can sing it on their behalf, and overlap with Crowd Song.
Depending on genre, this song can overlap with Creepy Jazz Music, Rotten Rock & Roll or Freaky Electronic Music.
Now has its own Wiki
. Compare Villain Love Song (which can overlap), "The Villain Sucks" Song (which is sung about the villain by someone else), and Rock Me, Asmodeus! (the devil directly involved in rock & roll).
Contrast No Song for the Wicked.
Disney has had so many examples that they get their own page. All examples from media by Disney go there, while all the other pages are strictly for non-Disney examples from the media they cover.
Please note that just because a song is sung by a villain, doesn't necessarily make it a Villain Song. The Phantom of the Opera may have a showstopper in the form of "The Music of the Night", but he doesn't use it to gloat over his villainy.
