"A Whole New World" is the signature song from

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

's 1992 animated feature film ''Aladdin'', with music by

Alan Menken Alan Irwin Menken (born July 22, 1949) is an American composer, best known for his scores and songs for films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. His scores and songs for '' The Little Mermaid'' (1989), '' Beauty and the Beast'' (1991), ' ...

and lyrics by

Tim Rice Sir Timothy Miles Bindon Rice (born 10 November 1944) is an English lyricist and author. He is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote, among other shows, ''Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat'', ...

. A

duet A duet is a musical composition for two performers in which the performers have equal importance to the piece, often a composition involving two singers or two pianists. It differs from a harmony, as the performers take turns performing a sol ...

originally recorded by singers

Brad Kane Bradley Caleb Kane (born September 29, 1973) is an American actor, singer, producer and screenwriter. Career Kane began to act with a small role in the movie ''Six Weeks''. At the age of eight, he obtained the role of one of the four chorus bo ...

and

Lea Salonga Maria Lea Carmen Imutan Salonga (; born February 22, 1971), known professionally as Lea Salonga, is a Filipino singer, actress, and columnist. Nicknamed "Pride of the Philippines," she is best known for her roles in musical theatre, for supplyi ...

in their respective roles as the singing voices of the main characters

Aladdin Aladdin ( ; ar, علاء الدين, ', , ATU 561, ‘Aladdin') is a Middle-Eastern folk tale. It is one of the best-known tales associated with ''The Book of One Thousand and One Nights'' (''The Arabian Nights''), despite not being part o ...

and

Jasmine Jasmine ( taxonomic name: ''Jasminum''; , ) is a genus of shrubs and vines in the olive family (Oleaceae). It contains around 200 species native to tropical and warm temperate regions of Eurasia, Africa, and Oceania. Jasmines are widely culti ...

, the

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or '' ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

serves as both the film's

love Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest Interpersonal relationship, interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of ...

and

theme song Theme music is a musical composition that is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at ...

. Lyrically, "A Whole New World" describes Aladdin showing the confined princess a life of freedom and the pair's acknowledgment of their love for each other while riding on a magic carpet. The song garnered an

Academy Award for Best Original Song The Academy Award for Best Original Song is one of the awards given annually to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is presented to the ''songwriters'' who have composed ...

at the

65th Academy Awards The 65th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored films released in 1992 in the United States and took place on March 29, 1993, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles beg ...

and a

Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song The Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song is a Golden Globe Award that was awarded for the first time in 1962 and has been awarded annually since 1965 by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. The award is presented to the songwriters of a ...

at the

50th Golden Globe Awards The 50th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film and television for 1992, were held on Saturday January 23, 1993 at the Beverly Hilton. The nominations were announced on December 29, 1992. Winners and nominees Film The ...

. "A Whole New World" also won the

Grammy Awards The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...

for Song of the Year and Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television at the

36th Annual Grammy Awards The 36th Annual Grammy Awards were held on March 1, 1994. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year. Whitney Houston was the Big Winner winning 3 awards including Record of the Year and Album of the Year while opening t ...

, becoming the first and so far only Disney song to win in the former category. In the same year, the version sung by

Peabo Bryson Robert Peapo "Peabo" Bryson (born April 13, 1951) is an American singer and songwriter. He is known for singing soul ballads (often as a duet with female singers) including the 1983 hit "Tonight, I Celebrate My Love" with Roberta Flack. Bryson ...

and Regina Belle was also nominated for

Record of the Year The Grammy Award for Record of the Year is presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without reg ...

and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocals, winning the latter.

Zayn Malik Zain Javadd Malik ( ; born 12 January 1993), known mononymously as Zayn, is an English pop and R&B singer. Zayn auditioned as a solo contestant for the British music competition television series ''The X Factor'' in 2010. After being eliminate ...

and Zhavia Ward did their version of the song for the live action version of ''

'' (2019). The music video featuring Zayn Malik and Zhavia Ward was directed by

Philip Andelman Philip Andelman is an American music video director and photographer. Andelman has directed music videos for many notable artists, see below. He has received nominations for his works from the MVPA, VMAs, and CMT awards including MVPA Director o ...

, photographed by David Devlin and supported the successful release of the 2019 live action feature film ''Aladdin'' directed by Guy Ritchie.

Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle version

A single version of the song was released that same year and was performed by American recording artists

and Regina Belle. This version is played over the film's end credits and is referred on the soundtrack as "''Aladdins Theme". The version peaked at number one on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart for a week, ending on March 6, 1993, replacing

Whitney Houston Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American singer and actress. Nicknamed "Honorific nicknames in popular music, The Voice", she is Whitney Houston albums discography, one of the bestselling music artists ...

's "

I Will Always Love You "I Will Always Love You" is a song written and originally recorded in 1973 by American singer-songwriter Dolly Parton. Written as a farewell to her business partner and mentor Porter Wagoner, expressing Parton's decision to pursue a solo career, ...

", which had spent a then-record 14 weeks at the top of the chart. It went

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...

and sold 600,000 copies domestically. The track peaked at number 12 in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

in 1993. The song is the first song from a Disney animated film to top the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100. It was the only Disney song to achieve this feat until " We Don't Talk About Bruno" from '' Encanto'' reached the summit in 2022. The single version was later included on Belle's studio album '' Passion'' (1993) and on Bryson's studio album '' Through the Fire ''(1994).

Critical reception

Alan Jones from ''

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as '' Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music W ...

'' gave the song five out of five. He wrote, "The theme from ''Aladdin'' is a huge appealing big

duet. A melodic tour de force with wide ranging appeal, it is wisely tipped as the Christmas number one."

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Cover versions

Lea Salonga and Jose Mari Chan version

In the Philippines, a version of the song performed by Lea Salonga and

Jose Mari Chan Jose Mari Lim Chan (; born March 11, 1945) is a Filipino singer, TV host, songwriter and businessman in the sugar industry. He is currently chairman and CEO of Binalbagan Isabela Sugar Company, Inc. (BISCOM) in Negros Occidental and A. Chan ...

, both Filipino recording artists, was released as a single through Bell Films (a subsidiary of

Universal Records Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch–American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

) in 1993, coinciding with the Philippine theatrical release of ''Aladdin'' on April 30, 1993. Then- SM Rookies member Jaehyun, who later debuted as a member of boy group NCT and former member Seo Herin performed the song in Disney Channel Korea show Mickey Mouse Club in December 2015.

Other notable cover versions

* In 2007,

Pixar Pixar Animation Studios (commonly known as Pixar () and stylized as P I X A R) is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films. It is based in Emeryville, Californ ...

employee Nick Pitera uploaded a video to YouTube where he performs both the male and female characters,− earning 30 million views by January 2013. * In 2018, Riff Raff and Jonathan Hay created a hip-hop cover of the song for the album ''The Hoodlum Ball''. * Malik's English vocals were also used for two English-

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

versions of the song, "Un mundo ideal". The Spanish parts were sung for the

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived ...

n market by American singer

Becky G Rebbeca Marie Gomez (born March 2, 1997), known professionally as Becky G, is an American singer and actress. She first gained recognition in 2011 when she began posting videos of herself covering popular songs online. One of her videos caught t ...

and for the

market by Spanish singer

Aitana Aitana (, ) is a mountain massif that is part of Prebaetic System in the eastern end of the Iberian Peninsula. Administratively, the mountainous area is located in the Marina Baixa, Alcoià and Comtat comarcas in the northern part of Alicante ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Whole New World, A 1992 singles 1992 songs 1990s ballads Best Original Song Golden Globe winning songs Best Original Song Academy Award-winning songs Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles Columbia Records singles Contemporary R&B ballads Disney Renaissance songs Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media Grammy Award for Song of the Year Jose Mari Chan songs Katie Price songs Lea Salonga songs Love themes Male–female vocal duets Mena Massoud songs Peabo Bryson songs Peter Andre songs Pop ballads Regina Belle songs Ricardo Montaner songs Song recordings produced by Alan Menken Song recordings produced by Walter Afanasieff Songs from Aladdin (franchise) Songs with lyrics by Tim Rice Songs with music by Alan Menken Soul ballads Walt Disney Records singles Zayn Malik songs Zhavia Ward songs