Aladdin

Aladdin (Arabic: علاء الدين‎, ʻAlāʼ ad-Dīn, IPA: [ʕalaːʔ adˈdiːn]) is a Middle Eastern folk tale. It is one of the tales in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights ("The Arabian Nights"), and one of the best known—though it was actually added to the collection in the 18th century by Frenchman Antoine Galland (see Sources and setting, below).

Plot summary

Aladdin is an impoverished young ne'er-do-well dwelling in "one of the cities of China". He is recruited by a sorcerer from the Maghreb, who passes himself off as the brother of Aladdin's late father Mustapha the tailor, convincing Aladdin and his mother of his good will by pretending to set up the lad as a wealthy merchant. The sorcerer's real motive is to persuade young Aladdin to retrieve a wonderful oil lamp from a booby-trapped magic cave. After the sorcerer attempts to double-cross him, Aladdin finds himself trapped in the cave. Fortunately, Aladdin is still wearing a magic ring the sorcerer has lent him. When he rubs his hands in despair, he inadvertently rubs the ring and a jinnī (or "genie") appears who releases him from the cave so that he can return to his mother, fortunately still carrying the lamp. When his mother tries to clean the lamp, so they can sell it to buy food for their supper, a second far more powerful genie appears who is bound to do the bidding of the person holding the lamp.

New World

The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas (including nearby islands such as those of the Caribbean and Bermuda).

The term originated in the early 16th century after Europeans made landfall in what would later be called the Americas in the age of discovery, expanding the geographical horizon of classical geographers, who had thought of the world as consisting of Africa, Europe, and Asia, collectively now referred to as the Old World (aka Afro-Eurasia).

The term was first coined by Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci. The Americas were also referred to as the "fourth part of the world".

Usage

The terms "Old World" vs. "New World" are meaningful in historical context and for the purpose of distinguishing the world's major ecozones, and to classify plant and animal species that originated therein.

One can speak of the "New World" in a historical context, e.g., when discussing the voyages of Christopher Columbus, the Spanish conquest of Yucatán and other events of the colonial period. For lack of alternatives, the term is also still useful to those discussing issues which concern the Americas and the nearby oceanic islands, such as Bermuda and Clipperton Island, collectively. This usage is seen as problematic by many for its narrowness of perspective and implication that discovery by European explorers was the beginning of history for the Americas.

Luther Vandross

Luther Ronzoni Vandross, Jr. (April 20, 1951 – July 1, 2005) was an American singer, songwriter and record producer. Throughout his career, Vandross was an in demand background vocalist for several different artists including Judy Collins, Chaka Khan, Bette Midler, Diana Ross, David Bowie, Barbra Streisand, Ben E. King, and Donna Summer. He later became the lead singer of the group Change, which released its certified gold debut album, The Glow of Love, in 1980 on Warner Bros. Records. After Vandross left the group, he was signed to Epic Records as a solo artist and released his debut solo album, Never Too Much, in 1981.

His hit songs include "Never Too Much", "Here and Now", "Any Love", "Power of Love/Love Power", "I Can Make It Better" and "For You to Love". Many of his songs were covers of original music by other artists such as "If This World Were Mine" (duet with Cheryl Lynn), "Since I Lost My Baby", "Superstar" and "Always and Forever". Duets such as "The Closer I Get to You" with Beyoncé, "Endless Love" with Mariah Carey and "The Best Things in Life Are Free" with Janet Jackson were all hits in his career.

A Whole New World

"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 first and 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).