Disney Legend Lea Salonga gives an oral history of ‘A Whole New World’

Lea Salonga feared this was going to be the longest 2.5 minutes of her life. Could she pull it off? 

It was early 1992. Salonga, a young Broadway star, had been picked to sing as Princess Jasmine in “A Whole New World” for Disney’s upcoming “Aladdin” movie.

Stuck in a recording booth, she was lost without her smile or her body movements to convey her emotions to the audience, like she did on stage every night. All she had was her voice. 

“We focused on really acting, really putting our emotional energy into the vocal performance. And that is far more difficult and challenging than I thought it would be,” Salonga said. “Our voices had to carry everything,

How Salonga ended up here was a whirlwind.

One Winter morning, the 20-year-old auditioned for “Aladdin” by singing “The Little Mermaid” song “Part of Your World” for composer Alan Menken, lyricist Tim Rice, the film’s directors and others.

“I figured, ‘You know what? This is the song I’m going to do.’ Because 1. Alan wrote it and 2. This might be what they’re looking for. I don’t know,” Salonga said.

“So I sing and then Alan gets up from the table and then he goes to the piano and then he starts playing ‘Part of Your World.’ Just a chunk of it. And then he starts bringing up the key to see how high I can go. I’m singing, ‘Up where they walk, up where they run, up where they stay all day.’ And then he moves it up and then I have to follow accordingly. And I think I pretty much answered whatever questions he had.”

The cassette tape showed up a few days later. It was a demo of a “A Whole New World” with just a singer and a synthesizer singing it. Even the simple rendition left Salonga stunned.

“The song was just absolutely gorgeous. And I’m like, “Oh my God, I’m going to get to sing this,” Salonga said.

There wasn’t a declaration that Salonga landed the job as Princess Jasmine after the audition. Instead it was, “Boom. Here’s the next step,” Salonga said. “It happened really fast.”

The demo tape confirmed to her she was the one chosen to sing the film’s power ballad.

Less than a week later, Salonga was in the recording studio with a 75-piece orchestra and Brad Kane, 19, who sang the part of Aladdin. 

Her voice was fresh.

Normally, Salonga sang six days a week on Broadway for “Miss Saigon,” the role that won her a Tony Award in 1991. Aware of her Disney gig, her Broadway bosses insisted she take the night off before so her voice would sound perfect. 

“My thing was, I still have this job to do. I’ve got to do this. But they were like, ‘No. This is going to be important. You have to take the night off,’” Salonga said. “I’m glad that they told me that. They could see further forward than I could at the time.”

Recording “A Whole New World” took a full day — a morning with the orchestra, then, in the afternoon, Salonga and Kane focused on getting into character. It wasn’t easy.

All they had to guide them were Disney artists’ pencil sketches. No detailed animation had been done yet to give the singers a vivid description on what the magic carpet ride around the world looked like in the film. The animators were waiting on the song recording to fully bring the moment to light. 

So with limited inspiration, Salonga closed her eyes and spread her arms, to pretend she was flying.

“It was nuts. I was like, ‘OK, this is a 2.5-minute song, if that. And this is going to be the most challenging and most difficult 2.5 minutes of my life,’” Salonga said. “Every single ounce of our emotional energy needed to be channeled into the vocals.”

It took every bit of focus she could muster.

“It’s easy to call upon now because I’ve done it like a few hundred times by now. But at the time it was like, ‘OK. What are we supposed to do to make this sound great?’” she added.

“We would go into the studio and go into the booth and then do the best that we could. And it was a whole day of figuring it out.”

A few months later, Salonga returned to the recording studio. Rice wanted Salonga to tweak a single line.

“But now from way up here, it’s crystal clear that now I’m in a whole new world with you” was changed to, “But when I’m way up here, it’s crystal clear that now I’m in a whole new world with you.”

“That was it,” Salonga said.

Her work was done.

Salonga squeezed her friend’s hand and burst into tears when she heard her voice for the first time during an early screening of the movie. 

Robin Williams’ slapstick humor as the genie won over fans. But it was “A Whole New World” that carried the emotional weight of the film and became an instant classic as the first Disney song to win a Grammy Award. Salonga, who grew up listening to the music from Disney’s “Cinderella,” became an inspiration for a next generation of fans.

Salonga, an official Disney Legend, went on to sing again for Disney’s “Mulan” a few years later.

“It was just the thing that I never ever thought would happen to a kid from the Philippines, to be in a Disney movie. That didn’t seem like anything that could really happen to someone like me. And yet it did,” Salonga said.

Salonga said she never tires of “A Whole New World.” 

“It will always be special. It’s one of those things that never loses its wonder,” she said, laughing, adding that she has even performed it during karaoke. “No matter how many times I’ve sung it in the span of 33 years … it hasn’t lost any of its sparkle.”

Once, when on site filming a Hallmark movie, somebody introduced Salonga as Princess Jasmine to her young daughter. The child was skeptical. Salonga didn’t look like the cartoon princess. Salonga told the girl to close her eyes and then belted out “A Whole New World.” The little girl opened her eyes, amazed, understanding now.

When Salonga performs for a one-night show Dec. 13 at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, you can expect “A Whole New World” on the setlist.