"A Whole New World" is a song from Disney's 1992 animated feature film Aladdin, with music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Tim Rice. The song is a ballad between the primary characters Aladdin and Jasmine about the new world they are going to discover together while riding on Aladdin's magic carpet. The original version was sung by Brad Kane and Lea Salonga during the film. They also performed the song in their characters at the 65th Academy Awards, where it won Academy Award for Best Original Song as well as the only Disney song to win a Grammy Award for Song of the Year at the 36th Annual Grammy Awards. In 2014, Adam Jacobs and Courtney Reed performed the song as Aladdin and Jasmine in the film's Broadway adaptation.
A single version of the song was previously released that year and was performed by Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle. This version is played in the movie's end credits and is referred on the soundtrack as "Aladdin's Theme". This version peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on March 6, 1993, replacing Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You", which had spent a then record 14 weeks at the top of the chart. It went gold and sold 600,000 copies domestically. The track peaked at number 12 in the UK Singles Chart in 1992. The song is the first and only song from a Disney animated film to top the Billboard Hot 100. The single version was later included on Belle's studio album Passion (1993) and on Bryson's studio album Through the Fire (1994). The Latin American rendition of the song, "Un Mundo Ideal", by Ricardo Montaner and Michelle received airplay throughout Latin America. This rendition was later included on Montaner's greatest hits album Éxitos y... Algo Más (1993).
Since its first release, some local TV stations and studios have been dubbing the movie in their local languages, creating some unofficial dubs. Namely: Albanian, Arabic (TV dub), Crimean Tatar, Kannada, Serbian and Slovak (TV dub).
Joël Legendre's Aladdin (Canadian French) was so loved by Disney USA that in 1997 he was asked to come back as Hercules.
Girl group Eternal released the song as the B-side to their 1996 single, "Someday", recorded for the Disney film The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Country music artist Collin Raye performed the song for the collaboration album The Best of Country Sing the Best of Disney.
Hank Marvin did an instrumental version of the song in 1997 on his album Hank Plays the Music of Tim Rice & Andrew Lloyd Webber.
LMNT covered the song for DisneyMania 2, released in 2004.
Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey covered the song for DisneyMania 3 released in 2005, and on the two-disc Platinum Edition DVD for the Aladdin film.
The song was covered in 2006 by British glamour model Katie Price (also known as Jordan) and her now ex-husband, Peter Andre. The track is included on their 2006 album of duets A Whole New World.
J-pop artist Kumi Koda and Peabo Bryson included a cover for Koda's 2006 album Best: Second Session.
K-pop boy-band TVXQ recorded the song for their 2007 Japanese album, Five in the Black, as a special track.
In 2007, Pixar employee Nick Pitera uploaded a video to YouTube where he performs both the male and female characters, earning 30 million views (as of January 18, 2013).
Saxophonist Dave Koz covered the song on his album At The Movies. The song featured Donna Summer on vocals.
On Disney – Koe no Oujisama album the song was sung by Kenichi Suzumura
The song was covered in 2013 by Japanese hip-hop/EDM group M-Flo, featuring vocals by Matt Cab, for the album Electronic Disney Music.
Christian pop punk band Stellar Kart featured a cover on their Disney cover EP named after this song.
Pianist Alex Hardwick has recorded a piano solo version (released online as a single track).
Female duet Winnie Su performed a cover in 2015 and released a video online in 2016.
A cappella singer and YouTube star Peter Hollens performed a portion of the song as part of his "Epic Disney Medley" with fellow singer Alex G. As of March 2016, the video has 6.2 million views.
A Japanese male vocal-dance group Da-iCE members Sota Hanamura and Yudai Ohno has recorded a cover of this song for their group's latest 8th Single Watch Out (Digital Version).
The song was covered in different languages for the series We Love Disney by:
Joyce Jonathan and Olympe for We Love Disney, France in 2013
Husein and Nowela for We Love Disney, Indonesia in 2015
Antonino and Emma for We Love Disney, Italy in 2015
Yuna for We Love Disney, United States in 2015
Luciano Pereyra for We Love Disney, Latin America in 2016
Some notable artists that have covered this song live include:
Sweetbox, for WOW! DisneyMania in Japan.
Charice Pempengco and Super Junior member Kyuhyun on Star King in 2007
Peabo Bryson and Patti LaBelle performed the song along with all 77 contestants at the 1994 Miss Universe Pageant in Manila, Philippines
Bryson recorded a version of the song with Japanese pop artist Kumi Koda, which appeared as a bonus track on her album BEST ~second session~.
Peabo Bryson and Chilean singer Andrea Tessa performed the song on the Viña del Mar International Song Festival in 2001.
David Phelps and Sandi Patty performed the song on "Mark Lowry On Broadway" in 2001.
In the second season of American Idol in 2003, eventual winner Ruben Studdard sang the song on Movie Night. It was noted that season that "A Whole New World" was the most commonly used audition song, and a montage of "A Whole New World" auditions was aired to emphasize it.
In addition to recording a cover, Peter André and Katie Price performed the song live on Children in Need in 2005.
K-pop artists Ivy and Brian Joo
K-pop artist BoA and TVXQ member Xiah Junsu performed the song live at the AnyBand Concert in Korea on December 29, 2007.
Glee's actor Darren Criss performed the song with Lea Salonga, the singing voice of Princess Jasmine on Aladdin at Billboard/Hollywood Reporter TV & Film Music Conference to Alan Menken.
Girls' Generation member Tiffany and K.Will
The song is performed during the fountain show World of Color at Disney California Adventure park while LED lights affixed to Mickey's Fun Wheel twinkle in the backdrop, appearing as stars.
Sota Hanamura and Yudai Ohno from Da-iCE had recently performed the song on their US debut concert at 2016
FanimeCon in San Jose, California.
Lea Salonga and Hamilton composer and star Lin-Manuel Miranda sang a cover at the Richard Rodgers Theatre during a Ham4Ham lottery in 2015.
