From the outside, This Is Me – the unavoidably catchy, rousing ballad of self-emancipation at the heart of the PT Barnum musical The Greatest Showman – is an understandable hit, even to the most cynical. Sung by the circus’s bearded lady, Leetie Lutz – played by Keala Settle – it espouses positive messages of self-emancipation and liberal thought, in the same vein as Katy Perry’s Firework or Lady Gaga’s Born This Way. You can see why this song has become a sleeper hit in our age of identity politics: no matter your race, sexuality, gender or beard quality, you have a right to space in this world. It is moving, in the same way a gospel choir can be to an atheistic crowd.

For anyone who might be feeling down, This Is Me is the new anthem, taking over from Frozen belter Let It Go as the one that everyone, regardless of pipes, can holler with feeling. And like Frozen, The Greatest Showman continues to live a second life in cinemas, with devotees filling seats at sing-a-long versions almost a year after it premiered.

Fans can be found everywhere: Dawn Butler ended her speech at this year’s Labour conference with a verse from the song: “I’m marching on to the beat I drum/I’m not scared to be seen/I make no apologies, this is me,” she ended, adding: “Conference, make no apologies.” Not since 1997, when Tony Blair jigged about on stage to D:Ream’s Things Can Only Get Better, have we had such an awkward use of a song at a Labour party conference.

Under all the warbling and hootenanny, some can (I certainly do) remain cynical about a film that reframes the ruthless huckster Barnum (Hugh Jackman) as a kindly, progressive pal. But the film’s breakout song, an ode to being scarred and bruised but proud, has a unifying message, one just vague enough that you can twist it into whatever you need it to be: whether you’re transgender, black, bullied, scared or just in need of a snappy ending to a slightly bumbly conference speech.